New $35K pivoting tonearm

They used to make boats out of Wood , not any more. Seen a few wood tonearms many years back. Where are they now? They don't even use Wood for park benches anymore.

Hi,
Just to make sure that no mis-information is spread:
The armwands on the LT arm are still made out of wood. And so is the headshell, albeit both undergo different treatment procedures to make them impervious to changes in humidity.

As for the thermal "stability" of wood vs. other materials often used for armwands, please see here:

http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/linear-expansion-coefficients-d_95.html

As you can see, wood(direction of grain/untreated fir in this case, other woods are in the same ballpark) has a tec that is an order of a magnitude lower than aluminum and is similar to aluminum when measured perpendicular to the orientation of the grain.

I've been using "composite" armwands on the No.2 arms, and seldomly(upon request) on Ref. arms. Two or more layers of different woods, sometimes in conjunction with Delignit or high tech polymers qualify as a composite too(in my book anyway)

And yes, a lot of high end gear is overpriced, - but not all of it.

Have a relaxed sunday,

Frank Schröder

Hi,
@ Peterayer: Just to make sure that there is no mis-information spread:
Both armwands and headshells on the LT arms are made out of wood, albeit treated differently to make them impervious to humidity changes and otherwise improve their physical properties.

Some general info for those who consider wood unsuitable for armwands:

http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/linear-expansion-coefficients-d_95.html

As you can see, the TEC of wood(here fir, untreated, along the grain; other wood species are in the same ballpark)is an order of a magnitude lower than aluminum, even perpendicular to the grain, they are comparable.

Although the headshells on LT arms can hardly be called "composite" headshells, I did use composites on No.2 and Ref. arms, incl. combinations of Delignit, phenolic impregnated silk or paper, different types of wood glued together or less well known high tech polymers.
The use of such materials vs. metals alone is no guarantee for a neutral/accurate tonearm, but properly implemented, they allow for building highly precise and non-resonant structures.
Does such a tonearm "sound" good, aka, does it have as small a sonic signature as possible? Many other factors at play, ultimately it is up to the customer to decide...

And yes, many high end products are overpriced, - but not all of them.

All the best,

Frank Schröder

P.S.: I tried to post essentially the same response a day ago, but it didn't show up til now, hence this, second attempt. I apologize should this lead to a douple posting.

Jeb, Now please make a cogent argument against wood tonearms, if that is your position. Your arguments by analogy are nonsensical. And if you did not read any of the previous posts, you may not know that Reed, Durand, Schroeder, Pete Riggle, and several others DO currently make and sell wood tonearms.

And those plastic park benches suck, by the way. Nothing like a splinter up your arse to let you know you are in a park. Central Park in NYC still has 100% wood benches for your sitting pleasure.

Wood is just another material. Plastic is used in everywhere and yet nobody complains about it. There many other topics to talk about, such as bearing, wiring, geometry, etc... I'm with Lew, if you can't come up with a good argument, just move on to, say, a $35K tonearm?

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