I started using a Kuzma Airline a few months ago and despite the horror stories about these kinds of arms, I have been enormously pleased. Once set up and properly aligned, it is non-fiddly (I did initial set up pretty easily on the Kuzma XL table, but it was fine-tuned by Bill Parrish at GTT, who knows the arm and brought it to a fine point). Setting VTA is brilliantly simple and repeatable.
As to bass, and overall performance, I can give you the following insight- I had bought a Kuzma Reference table and the latest Triplanar, using a Lyra Titan i. The rest of the system was essentially unchanged. Pretty impressive bass (I use Avantgarde Duos, to put this into context) and quiet, dynamic and musical performance. I then switched to the Kuzma XL table- very high mass- and the Airline. More air around and body to the instruments- the bass became far deeper, if a little less pronounced higher up in the spectrum, and the sense of palpability- of real instruments and voices in space- not just a mirage or hologram, but real, with tonality and substance that wasn't there in the more modest set-up. (I grant you, some of this may have to do with the TT upgrade. And with the use of a far better platform for the TT. But, initial comparisons were without the benefit of the finite elemente platform now being used).
There is also less of a sense of a record playing- hard to describe, but when you don't hear it, you realize what you are usually hearing from a phono source.
The compressor must be in another place other than the listening room- it is noisy, it spits and farts, and is an otherwise serious piece of industrial gear. The quality of the arm itself is immediately apparent visually- overbuilt, fairly simple, and so far flawless in performance. I had an ET2 back in the day, and while it is unfair to compare, given the difference in price points-the ET2 was a bargain-
the Airline is an absolute revelation.
As to the need for a vaccuum table, maybe I am not getting the last iota from the XL, but I find that hard to believe- the record clamp does a great job, and the mass of the TT/platter assembly makes for a dead quiet listening experience. But, I'm certainly willing to be educated on this as well.
As to bass, and overall performance, I can give you the following insight- I had bought a Kuzma Reference table and the latest Triplanar, using a Lyra Titan i. The rest of the system was essentially unchanged. Pretty impressive bass (I use Avantgarde Duos, to put this into context) and quiet, dynamic and musical performance. I then switched to the Kuzma XL table- very high mass- and the Airline. More air around and body to the instruments- the bass became far deeper, if a little less pronounced higher up in the spectrum, and the sense of palpability- of real instruments and voices in space- not just a mirage or hologram, but real, with tonality and substance that wasn't there in the more modest set-up. (I grant you, some of this may have to do with the TT upgrade. And with the use of a far better platform for the TT. But, initial comparisons were without the benefit of the finite elemente platform now being used).
There is also less of a sense of a record playing- hard to describe, but when you don't hear it, you realize what you are usually hearing from a phono source.
The compressor must be in another place other than the listening room- it is noisy, it spits and farts, and is an otherwise serious piece of industrial gear. The quality of the arm itself is immediately apparent visually- overbuilt, fairly simple, and so far flawless in performance. I had an ET2 back in the day, and while it is unfair to compare, given the difference in price points-the ET2 was a bargain-
the Airline is an absolute revelation.
As to the need for a vaccuum table, maybe I am not getting the last iota from the XL, but I find that hard to believe- the record clamp does a great job, and the mass of the TT/platter assembly makes for a dead quiet listening experience. But, I'm certainly willing to be educated on this as well.