As far as i understand the design, forces on the cantilever are minimised during record warps and off center movement. This is controled by mass and not stiffness like in a conventional arm. The arm may look less stable when it tracks a record but when you look more carefully it followes the flow of he groove quite easily. Considering it´s delicate look it is surprisingly long. Effective length is 10.5", a good compromise between accurate tracking agle and stiffness. The materials are carefully chosen including the wiring, the solder and the plugs. Earthing and RFI rejection has been optimised.
Spiral Groove Centroid tonearm
Anyone has any experience with this new design? It has a rather brief rave review along with the Spiral Groove turntable in the latest Stereophile. It seems like an exciting analog product in recent years, along with Thales arms. Allen Perkins is a respected designer and I am intrigued by his tonearm design and wants to learn more about it.
From what I read, it's a unipivot design with a unique counterweight and bearing housing that concentrate most of the mass at the center pivot point, hence the name Centroid. I am also curious about how it deals with azimuth rocking in a unipivot design. Does it have a secondary ball bearing to stabilize torsional behavior like the Graham Phantom, Basis Vector, and Continuum Coppperhead, or the slightly different Nottingham and Simon Yorke? Or is it a pure unipivot with a spike and dimple? In unipivot designs, it is how the designer handles the azimuth rocking that truly shows the creativity. I'm surprised this tonearm has garnered much talk among the forum lurkers. If you know more about it, please contribute and discuss. Thanks!
Some pictures.