Goldmund Studio - still relevant today?

Dear Mark,
Don´t waste your money and time. Life is short. Here´s my story.
Back in 1990 I owned brand new Studio but not with the linear arm. The DD motor by JVC is excellent BUT the problem is the flimsy floating suspension.
It just floats causing technical problems and just smears sound, unfortunately. It´s not near as sophisticated as ORACLE´s hanging suspension. That´s why I witched my Studio to used DELPHI MKII and got much better sounding turntable.
And T3F is a clumsy dinosaur from the stone age, certain modern linear arms are certainly worth trying if you prefer linear trackers (I personally do).

BUT if you do like it for some other reasons, maybe for aesthetics I would suggest to get rid of the suspension altogether because it´is the root of all evil. If you are a DIY man give it a try. Think of its 25 kg mass of lead-acrylics body with a superb vintage Japanese DD motor. That´s really something else, isn´t it.
I should had tried to remove the suspension but I had not skills and patience to do. Young and foolish I was and lost a minor fortune eventually. Those were the days.

If you don´t care for tweaking an ancient TT it doesn´t make sense going back to the 90´s... Anyway, good luck for your search.

Regards

The LUXMAN PD444/Terminator T3Pro smokes Studio in my room. So does it with SME III. Now I vividly remember how wrong everything was with that stock Studio. Just sounded awful. So I did the right thing to get rid of it 26 years ago :)
The LUXMAN PD444 may very well be the very finest DD ever built. Its rotating speed is rock solid.

tonykay,

So you like it. Have no worries, there are plenty of them for sale right now. I think I saw one with a full warranty on the German site (Audioscope ?) just recently... yes it´s absolutely true (smile).

Nandric,

You can´t be more wrong on everything you just posted on me and you know that. I don´t believe in your stories anymore. You don´t fool me. 

You send me the cart in a thin letter. You told you send carts all over the world in a regular letter to avoid high postage. 
The envelope had a tear probably caused by stroke by a heavy object somewhere along the way, already as I received it. I told you that immediately and send you pic of that tear on the envelope. I had received you letter with a tear (almost a hole on it) in and you know this. I wonder if you have an idea what kind of risks you take when sending a phono cartridge in a regular /thin letter to other countries. Something happened along the way but it´s beyond my control, nor yours. You understand/know this. When I opened your thin letter THE CANTILEVER WAS A BIT OFF-CENTER ALREADY, before I played it. I also told this. I adjusted your cart and told you immediately that off-center does not affect on sound quality at all. Your cart sound just fine on my linear tracker. You also know this because you were pleased to hear this. 

I listened to your cartridge and sent it back IN EXACTLY THE SAME CONDITION I RECEIVED IT. The cantilever was exactly as off-center as when I had received it from you. I sent the cart again in a regular letter BUT THIS TIME I MADE A BETTER LETTER PACKAGE: I PUT YOUR JEWEL BOX IN A CICARETTE BOX (that makes it a double packet) AND PUT AN EXTRA PIECE OF THICK PAPER BESIDE THE CART IN THAT JEWEL BOX SO THAT IT WOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE THAT THE CART COULD MOVE INSIDE THE JEWEL BOX during transit. NOTHING COULD TOUCH THE STYLUS/CANTILEVER NOW DURING TRANSIT. I know exactly what I was doing.

Unless it would be touched/damaged by someone after I shipped the letter.
And you also know this: Sending items via post without insurance is certainly not safe. But you received my letter. Great.

All this means : Someone "damaged" (as you say) your cart. 

That means:
1) Someone unknown damaged you cart, maybe a post worker. Or

2) You did. Deliberately or not.

Well, accidents happen, as they say.

I also said sorry for your "damaged" cart. You also know this.

And another thing that I have been wondering since this sad episode... it is possible that the cantilever was already bent when you put the cart into box. Whatever the case, not my fault. 

But how dare you blame me for YOUR CARELESS in this business ?
.
How dare you accuse me FOR YOUR OWN MISTAKES ?

Now I have this funny feeling that it is quite possible that you "damaged" your own cart so that you can put the blame on me and maybe even demand money from me to fix your cart. 

If I had done anything harmful to your cart I would have told you immediately and asked you to sell it to me. Do you know why ? Because I trusted you 100 % . And because it was the best MC cart I had heard back then, over two years ago. It really sounded excellent on Trans-Fi arm. Actually that Ortofon was the best MC I had tried so far on my Trans-Fi arm. But I never did a slightest harm to it.

Anyway, you know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ABOUT LINEAR TONEARMS.
Because you have never even tried one, you told me. We had a long discussion on TTs, different type of carts, some high quality tonearms... I remember vividly that too.
"linear tracker" destroys cantilevers. I have never heard anything absurd in hi-fi. Honestly never in last forty years in this hobby. Properly adjusted/installed linear tonearm DOES NOT destroy cantilevers or anything else during normal play.  
Ridiculous statement.

I never asked you anything in this thread. And don´t try to put words in other people´s mouth.

And you still owe me an apology.

Nandric,

You received 2 days for your apology. Now your time has run out.

You chose the harder way. 

Man defends himself when it´s necessary. It´s time to tell one interesting detail how you actually did back then.

When I opened your thin letter with a tear on its surface, I faced the biggest surprise I have ever met when dealing with Hi-Fi gear, still so far.

You sent your just-retipped MC 25FL WITHOUT STYLUS GUARD.
To be honest, the cantilever was actually in touch one of the walls of that tiny plastic jewel box when I looked at it after having taken it from that box.
The cartridge must have moved inside the plastic box during transit. The cantilever was a bit off-center.

I immediately told you that the cantilever was in touch with one inner wall of that tiny plastic jewel box. You know all this already and I sent you pics.
This time you were lucky, the bent cantilever produced excellent sound quality from start to finish.

I took pics of the damaged letter, the cart w/ bent cantilever to you. I took many photos and sent a few to you, of course. I also took pics before dispatching back to you, of course. 

I packed your cart much more carefully than you and you fully understand why. For the second time you were lucky because you did receive my letter with no tears/any harm caused to it. Otherwise you would had emailed me immediately.

I KNOW THAT YOU RECEIVED THE YOUR CART IN SAFE AND SOUND.

Unless something strange happened after dispatch. Someone ruined your cart.

I´ve  been wondering what kind of a person sends his just-retipped very expensive phono cartridge without stylus guard ??

Nevertheless, that bent cantilever gave excellent sound quality with 60 LP records I played without any kind of issues. 

Initially I received a bent cantilever from your. I sent it back IN EXACTLY THE SAME CONDITION. Not my fault.

Actually I´ve been thinking of this very strange incident very very carefully since August 2014. 

Your thin letter with a tiny plastic box inside is very tempting for a casual thief. Someone, or maybe several, post workers perhaps, opened the letter and found a phono cartridge inside but wasn´t interested, ruined cantilever and stylus tip and put it back. The most likely scenario IMO.

You should be lucky you received your cart back eventually !!

Bloody hell.

Your arrogance and prejudice and hate for fellow audiophiles is something else, in any forum for the last fifteen years I have experienced/seen in hifi/music discussions.

I don´t mind people who have a very different opinion about all things in Hi-Fi but I don´t care for offensive people. 

I have never ever got insulted so hard as you do for no true reason.

Now I finally know exactly what kind of a person you really are.

You urgently should ask Axel weather a stiff MC cart is compatible with paraller tracking arm. He knows the exact answer because he is not only a professional but an artist. So is Vic. SMILE

The Trans-Fi arm fits my AT ART-9 perfectly and produces superb sound quality.  My Trans-Fi linear arm can be taken from me only over my dead body.
 

My conscience is 100 % pure.

BIG SMILE

Period.