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Questions Regarding Installing a Wheaton Triplanar On A SOTA Cosmos
As luck would have it I recently acquired a Wheaton Triplanar VII U2, and am waiting on it being shipped. So at this point I am trying to decide what the most favorable table to mount it on, and what arm gets replaced. I have a SOTA Cosmos Eclipse with a SME V on it, and that would be my preferred place to install it. The only thing is this Triplanar has the arm cable extending out the back of the arm pillar instead of routed out the bottom of it. I have to assume the cable is going to have to be routed on top of the arm board and then over the edge into the body of the Cosmos. Not wild about that but do not see any other options other than drilling a 1/4 hole and routing the cable through it. Anyone have any experiences to share if they have installed it on a SOTA table?
My second alternative is to put the arm on my Scheu in place of a Dynavector DV505 I have. That is certainly a straightforward option, with no issues to be solved. However, I have never been fond of the SME V on the SOTA, so this would be my first choice.
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@lewm It is no secret, I have a means of writing on this forum, that is long winded (prolix), I make such a claim unashamedly, and for such I receive comment. Additionally, I quite enjoy using Capitol Letter whilst structuring a sentence, it is my choice to not restrict a Capitol to a Proper Noun and to stray into poor Orthography. The forum does not bind individuals from having a display of Poetic License or to Wax Lyrical, I enjoy this injection of unruliness used in a selection of my Posts. None of the above matters, if the content put forward has enabled another to ponder something described a little deeper, and adopt a method that has been presented. My own personal mail box is testament to others on occasion informing the Penny Dropped and an idea is now being sought through to a realisation. There is very little discovered within this forum to discourage me to be something different. My observations of this forum, before becoming a member and as a member, leaves me with the understanding the fundamental is about encouraging inquirers to spend, and it does seem to me prior to my joining this was a direction steered from those with concealed agendas, there is no doubt, a period within this forum where a unbalanced period was dominated by members with a commercial interest in the outcome of inquiries made within a thread. Some got so blase, the approach was almost a sales pitch with some sort of elaborate description to be excused for such a Cold Calling Attitude. I joined this forum to counter such an attitude, and share alternative info, based on experiences had only, and at worse, based on experiences described by known and very trusted individuals. I am always encouraged, to participate in this forum, there is a lot that can be shared, even if a little repetitive, that will hopefully, encourage an individual to optimise what they possess as an audio set up, for not too much of a financial outlay, prior to throwing substantial monies at items, that are not encountered in advance and only a fantastical perception of its performance is the faux experience that has developed. There are hostilities to be met, when one steers the idea away from spending, especially within a environment that is quite honed on the concept of spending as the solution. Fortunately this member is not a flimsy reed in the wind, there is a bit more resistance to the forces that are around.
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Well back to our regular programming. Since I have a spare arm board for the SOTA and the Scheu I figured I would trial a temporary installation. I started laying out the SOTA option, and even at the eyeballing stage it can be seen that the rear stub of the arm is too long to clear the right corner of the table. Not only do you have to space the arm board or arm up, the dustcover is going to have to be removed. Not an option I wanted to pursue. Next up came the Scheu, and so I pulled the Dynavector off. I roughed the angle of the board in, placed the arm on the back of board and held it in place with a generous application of strong double sided tape. It took a bit of maneuvering to get the right angle for the arm, and this gives me a reference when the permanent arm board shows up so I can lay it out for a drilling pattern. Made fine adjustments with the board to obtain correct spindle to pivot numbers and we cinched down the bolt.
As long as I was this far, I decided to put a cartridge on it and see if the offset between the arm board and the top of the platter was too great, or if I would have to find a way to raise the arm board. Put on an Audio Tekne MC6310 and adjusted VTA to find I was in the center of the range. At this point I can set VTF as that only takes a minute. Now with minimal antiskate dialed in I can at least spin a donor album and make sure both channels are playing. Which I did, and even without finishing the alignment it sounded surprisingly good. So I ran some errands and when I came back in the afternoon, I aligned the cartridge and decided to spin a couple of good albums. The performance is quite nice, its rich and vibrant without any significant loss of detail. Definite improvement over my Dynavector, so this is where I am going to use it. The only downside is I now have no way to play my Ortofon MC2000's. I know a Scheu dealer in Canada and I reached out to see if he had any extra black arm boards. No blank ones, but there was one with a small hole drilled towards the back and in the center axis of the board, probably in the 30 mm range. Probably for an older Rega, Origin Live, or something like that. I can cover that up with the base flange of the Triplanar and then drill the bolt pattern for a permanent mount. So once I get that I will complete the permanent installation. But for now I can listen to it, and its a gem. |
@neonknight Great News that your initial setting up has presented in a manner that has been quite satisfying. The 6310 has its fan club, I like it as a model as it is very honest, it does not conceal much about how its parts are assembled to enable function, which is nice if one likes seeing under the hood of a Cart'. |
@lewm The arm effective mass is 11 grams, which is higher than I feel comfortable running the cartridge at. I never could find a vertical effective mass for the vestigial arm on the Dynavector, but I always ran the lightest head shells I could find. In the end I used a Denon that weighed 5.6 grams. |
I’m running my MC2000 on my Reed 2A with the red cedar arm wand. Probably effective mass in the 10-12 Gm range. No problem. Anyway the TP is in that same range for effective mass. So in that hat respect you’re no better off with the TP. If you want to be a slave to the formula for resonant frequency, then there’s virtually no modern tonearm that works (according to JG Holt you need a 5gm tonearm). Just go for it. Nothing will break. |
@lewm Would the Link not be easier? |
If one is willing to continuous wore a TA, the Bayonets inserted plastic cylinder housing the signal path pins id removable, which will shave weight further. The interference fit design I am familiar with, which is designed to be used for the replacement of a SME Type Removable Head Shell, has enabled a little more weight to be removed in conjunction with the plastic cylinder. The Screw Clamp is redundant and removed, the wall of the part for the clamping of the Headshell is a lesser gauge as it is a better metal for the role of being less substance. |
And of course if you really must have very low effective mass, there is always the ADC LFA2, 6g total. https://www.vinylengine.com/library/adc/lmf-2.shtml Three of my favorite cartridges have very high compliance, the Ortofon MC2000, which vexes the OP, the Acutex 320 series (LPM and M versions, with a compliance of 42), and the B&O MMC1. The latter two are easier to satisfy than the MC2000, since they are intrinsically light weight; whereas the MC2000 weighs 11g all by itself In practice, I have successfully used tonearms in the low range of "medium" effective mass with all of these. I'd try a suspect pairing before going on to turn a tonearm with interchangeable headshells into a fixed headshell type. In a pinch, that CF headshell you have unearthed or an old super light weight aluminum headshell, e.g., SME, would be worth a try. |
I have tri-planar on my clear audio innovations woody and love the synergy. I have the 9.8 inch arm and have another that I want to mount a mono cart on down the road. You may want to investigate this combination as I see these come up for sale a few times a year, pm me if you would like to discuss. |
I do like the Triplanar arm. For an arm that has so much adjustability I don’t see how to adjust the cue lever bar. This one wants to drift a bit on set down and pick up. From searches on the net this seems to be an issue others have had. With the only fixes seem kind of janky. Wish there was a way to level that rod. |