I have two Trans-Fi Terminator tonearms. One on a modified Nottingham Analogue Mentor (Dais bearing, aluminum sandwich plinth, and premium power supply), the other a DIY air bearing job using aerospace components. Cartridges are Miyajima Zero and higher end Koetsu.
IMO the Trans-Fi is the best bargain in high end, maybe all of audio. I suspect that it outperforms anything costing less than a new car. Advantages: cost, adjustability, stability, tweekability (if there is such a word). It is the tonearm which registers the stylus to the record surface, and that must be both adjustable and stable, or that high end cartridge is worth no more than a mid-level MM.
Disadvantages: azimuth adjustment is intuitive but fiddly, and definitely not-on-the-fly. Badly warped records must be flattened. The beam of the tonearm must be perfectly horizontal (it is adjustable). Putting a record on the spindle requires attention. The compressor really should be in another room - but the tonearm is silent. Other disadvantages seem to me to be figments of the imagination from people who haven’t even seen one, let alone modified one for their own situation. But then YMMV. For me, the only ’side grade’ which I would consider would be a Durand. And that’s after the Hyperion cartridge. |
To Bill’s point about symmetrical stylus wear - a photomicrograph from a scanning electron microscope demonstrated minimal, nearly perfectly symmetrical stylus wear at just under 1000 hours. At Koetsu rebuild costs ... draw your own conclusions.
That may not be wholly attributable to the Trans-Fi, though. Being fanatical about record cleanliness (ultrasound) may have had something to do with the minimal wear. |
Jag, you might wonder how a $1000 low-production tonearm could compete with a $5000 unit from a big manufacturer. The answer is, "off-the-shelf."
The Terminator uses clever engineering instead of gobs of custom machining and pretty plating. Everything is made from off-the-shelf industrial material. The most common procedures are drilling and 90 degree straight cuts - cheap.
Few curves or slots. No plating, no exotic materials, no sculpted elements. Even the air bearing is improvised from common angle stock. Just utilitarian pieces, mostly made from common aluminum shapes. Good engineering, not eye candy. Obviously, from the comments, not for everyone. |
I wouldn't be too concerned with the horizontal mass. Theoretically - consider the mechanical advantage of an inclined plane - the record groove. That means 100 microns of lateral motion in each revolution, during which the stylus moves about 70 cm, for a mechanical advantage of 0.70/0.00010 = 7000 or so.
Experimentally, anything like what you suggest should manifest on one side of the stylus, and quickly too. After nearly 1000 hours, my Koetsu shows very little wear, and what little wear there is, is almost perfectly symmetrical. (From a photomicrograph using a scanning electron microscope.)
Kuzma Air Line uses a high pressure air hose attached to a New Way amorphous carbon air bushing (mass about 30 g if I have the model right). That air hose generates a very large force, relative to the stylus in the groove - it supposedly provides the necessary damping. No wonder the 4Point sounds better.
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The Trans-Fi also has a very short arm wand. I think that you are absolutely correct in your last sentence - that's exactly why I don't want one. Years ago I talked with the late Tom Fletcher of Nottingham Analogue fame, and he warned me against his linear tracker for exactly that reason, "It skips, so you clean the beam. It still skips and you clean it again. Sometimes twice is enough. Sometimes you can't see a thing and it still skips. Sometimes you clean 10 times. But when it doesn't skip, it's all worth it - to the right person."
Inclined plane. If the record groove is viewed as a curled inclined plane in which the stylus rides, then it is easy to calculate the forces acting on the stylus. An old mathematical trick: translate the problem you have into a problem you have already solved. |
Sorry to disappoint you, CT. I was reporting a conversation with an expert who realized the limitations of his design, and warned me against it when I asked. A true gentleman, Tom Fletcher.
You are of course correct that the Trans-Fi is a hybrid linear tracker. But, I note that the two plane air bushing is usually compromised by a relatively stiff air hose to pressurize that bearing, so I can’t agree that it is the most linear. That hose generates large forces relative to other forces on the stylus.
Big problem, or so it seems to me, considering Hooke’s Law (as the air hose acts like a spring); displacement is linear in force, but restoring force is proportional to offset from the centre, so it changes as the air bushing traverses the beam. Assuming that the air hose is centred at 4 cm from the rim of the record, this causes the stylus to press into the left channel, decreasing to 0 force at centring, and increasingly press into the right channel.
Trans-Fi finesses this problem by pressurizing the beam on which the saddle rides, and taking care of vertical motion by very low friction pivots. The only external force on the saddle is the tonearm’s cable - still a spring, but a very, very tiny one! The pivots only need to handle a few grams each - I like copper for the Koetsu, nylon for the Miyajima. Agreed that air would be best here too, but it’s not obvious how to do it.
What do you think?
I have discussed the weaknesses of this design in other postings, but overall I like the compromises which this design represents. My main modification is another support at the end of the beam, which allows me to adjust horizontality to 1 minute of arc, and maintain that setting.
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CT, you are so right! Perhaps I was thinking Air Tangent, although I'm not certain as I've never seen one. But for some reason I forgot everything I ever knew about the ET design. Thanks for correcting my error - alas, all to common at my age.
But, we still have a cantilevered beam. The Trans-Fi is easy to fix with a support on the free end. The ET requires another bushing on the other side, which in turn means a great long massive bearing shaft between the two air bushings. I saw some Chinese audiophiles demo something of the sort, and I was about to build one when I discovered the Trans-Fi.
The big advantage of the Trans-Fi is how accurately one can set azimuth - a few minutes of arc - not that I can hear better than about 15 or so. I tried to engineer something as good, but it ended up mighty clunky. So I bought someone else's solution and modified it as above.
Maybe we should host a thread on linear trackers and their mods? |
How accurately and repeatably can one set azimuth on the Walker? Looks like a simple collar-and-tube system, which is not really either. Do you know, Mijo? |
OP, have you noticed how the discussion has progressed to the point where we are now discussing the merits of the tonearm on a $150,000 table, or the legendary ET, compared to the Trans-Fi? |
Mijo, my air New Way air bearings and bushings are inaudible at a few inches (63psi). The Trans-Fi at lowest workable pressure (9 mm Hg) is inaudible at 6 inches, but I usually use 20 mm Hg, which is inaudible at 3 feet. |
