Tonearm adjustments on the fly

It forms aluminum oxide on the surface and that is not electrically conductive. The thicker the layer the more insulating property it has.

Exactly.

I've done that very thing! Had to grind the bit to give it a new edge. 

That treatment is nothing more than anodizing, a fairly standard finish used to protect the aluminum surface from oxidation. It forms aluminum oxide on the surface and that is not electrically conductive. The thicker the layer the more insulating property it has. I've seen heatsinks that have been treated this way just for that purpose.Ever try drilling a hole through aluminum that has a fairly thick anodized surface? The drill will squeal and protest until it has broken through that hard layer. Aluminum oxide is also used in certain sand paper.

BillWojo

The tonearm tube is internally damped with a strip of felt and the SME type removable headshell is gripped by a collet arrangement.

But above all the barrel has undergone an incredible surface treatment that is not conductive to further shield the cables that pass inside from radio and Emi interference that propagate in the air, it is sufficient to try with a tester to see that there is no it is conduction.
When some manufacturers painted the barrel to make them non-conductive, Victor had adopted a valid and expensive method of treatment.
https://i.postimg.cc/Gmr3Nb7Q/A.jpg

There is an ultra rare Airtangent straight line tracking arm that had the capability to raise and lower the arm by remote control.  That would be close to the ultimate setup for lazy adjustability, particularly if the arm were a neutral balance arm where tracking force does not change (I don't know if that is the case).

The Basis Vector arm has a mechanism that would allow for on the fly raising and lowering of the tonearm, but, when one selects the desired height, the main locking grub screw has to be tightened, and then the raising and lowering mechanism is backed off so that it is no longer in contact with the armboard (too much work for ultra lazy people).

Dear @washline  : At the end all those VTA on the fly mechanism in tonearms are fine for tiny VTA adjustements but when you need not so tiny VTA adjustements then you need to fix too the AZ, overhang and even could be the VTF. So what's the deal down there?

R.

R.

I know that Reed tonearms allow for this, but what other ones do?

Sitting in the sweet spot with the power of a Remote Control that Controls your SRA...
Mongoose

@atmasphere, The Schroder CB's bearings are ceramic, even harder. It is reported to have the lowest friction of any captured bearing arm made. Whether that is true or not I can't say but it is a very sensitive arm and it will move with just the air currents in the room.

@mijostyn

Do they have any play in them? That's always been the tricky bit.

Stiction is a real word. (There's no 'k'.) It means just what you think it means.

:)

Dear friends :  The overall VTA issue is a neccesity a must to have for any cartridge set up. 

What we have here is if at the fly is a compromise that could goes against the cartridge QLP.

""  what does it take to engineer in VTA on-the-fly and is it a compromise somewhere?

with the Rockport it was not. but now that would be a $300k-$500k turntable with that arm. it was hugely overbuilt. but that’s what it takes at the top of the food chain. i’m not an engineer,   ""

Exist different tonearm manufacturers engineering levels and each one of them with different way of thinking on their tonearm designs.

We all know about Rega tonearm that comes with  absolutely no VTA adjustment ( only by after market mods. ) and if you ask or read Rega white papers they have very good reasons for that.

Now here an unmatched ( till today ) tonearm engineering levels that a member of the Japanese giant Matushita group manufactured through Technics. The EPA-100:

http://www.thevintageknob.org/technics-EPA-100.html


but that is not the star in the Technics tonearm designs but its big bro  EPA-100 MK 2 that came with the best ever tonearm VTA mechanism ( no compromise one. ). The MK2 used Boron/Titanium in its arm wand and headshell ( here B with Al. ). Yes we read BORON the same material used in top today cartridge cantilevers and for very good reasons, I would like to see today a tonearm with all boron build material. This is the engineering level I'm talking about:

https://soundgate.net/product/OTY0.highend


That tonearm was coupled with the Technics SP 10MK3 turntable that you can see here if browse through the pictures:


http://www.thevintageknob.org/technics-SP-10MK3.html


The same VTA mechanism was shared by the Technics EPA 500 where exist at least 2 versions: one with straigth arm wand and one with S shaped.

I owned all and still own two of them. Here you can see the S shaped named EPA 250A:

https://soundgate.net/product/ODEw.highend


and here the straigth one where we can choose ( in those times. ) arm wands with different effective mass:


https://www.stereonet.com/forums/topic/260271-fs-technics-epa-500-tonearm/


As I said: engineering levels, the name of that issue " game ".

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.

Btw, all those Technics needs an internal rewiring for today better quality materials.

As mentioned earlier, Easy VTA with my Jelco TK850L, I also have Pete Riggle VTA setup with Origin Live modded Rega.tonearm on another table.

@chakster, I think Reed's marketing on the 3P is a bit misleading. If you look closely the vertical bearing is two points like the more expensive Origin live arms. The horizonal bearing is an upper hanging single point pulled into alignment by attracting magnets at the bottom. Since the upper bearing can be shifted horizontally azimuth can be adjusted. It has a great magnetic antiskating mechanism. It is a 3 point arm which is going to have more friction than a single point arm. Obviously it is a lot more stable. It is a very clever set up and I do not really care for it. The Arm I like the most is the 2G. The 2G has better geometry. It is a neutral balance arm and the vertical bearings are down at record level. It has fewer resonant structures. The 3P is quite complicated. 

@atmasphere, The Schroder CB's bearings are ceramic, even harder. It is reported to have the lowest friction of any captured bearing arm made. Whether that is true or not I can't say but it is a very sensitive arm and it will move with just the air currents in the room. I balanced the arm out so that it floats to set antiskating and had to turn the AC off. In spite of it being perfectly level it kept wanting to head towards the air return. Turning the AC off stopped it. Never had that happen before. The antiskating is also magnetic eliminating another bearing or friction creating device. 

Well I would say that environmental impact on the wood is just one of several potential problems. Perhaps even more significant is the issue of consistency of the material. Variations in grain, density, etc also could be questioned. Again I dont truly know but my guess is a major reason for using wood could be the fact that this medium is very easy to work and shape.

Someone earlier mentioned the Victor UA 7045 and UA 7082 tonearms with the adjustable VTA. It also has adjustable anti skating with a simple twist of a knob on the top and can be adjusted on the fly.
To set the VTA there is a large knurled lock ring that has a nicely machined collet underneath. Simply loosen the knurled ring after setting the fine VTA adjustment ring to the zero mark and slide the tonearm up or down to get the headshell dead level. Now tighten the knurled ring and use the fine adjust ring to raise or lower the tonearm + or - 3 mm. The fine adjust knurled ring is clearly calibrated with widely spaced markings for every 0.5 mm increment. Easy to estimate 0.1 mm changes or less if so desired. This uses a large helical screw that feels like using the focus adjustment on a fine camera lens. This fine adjustment is also done on the fly.
There is no perceptible play or looseness in any part of this tonearm assembly and the machine work is high end camera quality. The pivot bearings are actually miniature ball bearing assembly’s, no pointy screws in a divot with loose balls. The bearing layout for both vertical and horizontal movement is a true gimbal design unlike most tonearms. The tonearm tube is internally damped with a strip of felt and the SME type removable headshell is gripped by a collet arrangement.
There is no azimuth adjustment but a headshell with azimuth adjustment takes care of that.
It’s very obvious the Victor spent considerable time engineering these fine tonearms and they were found on Victors highest end models.
I find it the easiest tonearm to setup and adjust and have several of them.
BillWojo

It is, but also features the hardest metal bearings used in any tonearm made worldwide. This allows the bearings to be adjusted so there is zero play, something you can't do with a jeweled bearing (lest it crack). So it has the least chatter and sticktion (I made that word up but you know what I mean) of any arm made. So while it might not win any beauty contests, it does get the job done. Of any arm I've tried and used it comes the closest to sounding like my master tapes.

From Reed.lt :

"Another Reed 3Ps innovation is its bearing system. Although tonearm bearing system can be considered as gimbal, it acts like unipivot one. However, major difference from unipivot system is that instead of a single pivot three pivots and both vertical and horizontal axis’ magnetic stabilizers are used. Such bearing system is as rigid as gimbal, but its friction coefficient is as low as in unipivot." 

** Personally I'm not sure if I can detect the difference in bearings between several super high quality tonearms. 

atmasphere

... This allows the bearings to be adjusted so there is zero play, something you can't do with a jeweled bearing (lest it crack). So it has the least chatter and sticktion (I made that word up but you know what I mean) ...

Stiction is a real word. (There's no 'k'.) It means just what you think it means.

Thanks for your response on Durand, Mike. I recall reading the Durand website back when their only product was the Talea. This was right around the time that I heard the Talea for the first time. I was particularly taken by Joel’s background in both music and engineering, in part because one of our sons is a UW alum. I guess one can admire a developer with an open mind that stays open; once he decided on a particular wood, he apparently did not close his mind to other possibly better ideas. Back then there were some who disparaged wood per se because of the potential for warping. I didn’t and still don’t agree that warping is an insurmountable problem, if the maker knows what they re doing, and I have liked the Talea, the Reed tonearms, and Schroeder tonearms very much, all with wood arm wands.  And a tonearm is not going to be in an environment that is unstable as to temperature and humidity, which might tend to encourage warping.

Right you are. Think we can have rhodes add phonetically sensible to the list?

Some of the Micro Seiki arms have 'on-the-fly' adjustments for VTA.  I know, for example, the MA-505 variants have this, as well as the MA-808.  The 'on-the-fly' adjustment is more micro in nature.  You have to get it close first with a macro adjustment, raising or lowering the pivot and pillar, then using the set screws.  After that, it can be tweaked with micro adjustments using a rotating/sliding arm lever that will lock into place.

Personally, I only look at SRA.  I want to see the stylus tilting just forward of vertical - about 92 degrees.  I don't worry about the cantilever's angle, or even the levelness of the tonearm to the platter (except as a starting point).  I know some, more exotic, stylus profiles don't follow the 92 degree rule based on the actual cut, but it's a good general rule.

P.S. @millercarbon, Isn't it 'newbs', as in, short for 'newbies'?  I know 'noobs' is perhaps more phonetically sensible, but...

VTA and SRA are not identical but so close as to possibly not be worthy of concern. But, as MC points out on damage control after earlier stating the opposite, they are not the same. 

Again I want an explanation other than "it sounds better" regarding the viability of wood as a medium for tonearms. 

Mike L, Do you know what prompted Durand to switch from wood arm wands, the use of wood for which were at the heart of the company philosophy once upon a time, to other materials? I have heard the Talea, Talea2, and the Telos on a neighbor’s system. My too brief listening impressions suggested to me that the Telos was not much of a sonic upgrade on the Talea 2. In fact, I might have preferred the latter. The Talea 2 with a UNIverse cartridge was memorable. (Same turntable, phono, amps, and speakers in both cases.) Of course, the cartridge mating is key.

Lew, initially Joel used the ’treated’ wood since it resulted in a better performance than the metal arm wands he tried. he did not start out intending to use the wood as a dogma. he did detailed finite element analysis along with all his listening and found wood the best choice.......and not because it was wood. i think he tried at least 100 different arm wands before settling for the specific treated wood he ended up with.

then later he switched to composite arm wands as they took him further. although some of his customers still order arms with treated wood arm wands. Joel is a music professor at the University of Washington which has lots of engineering support as well as all the materials science support related to the aerospace (Boeing). it helps that Joel is a (self taught) machinist as well as a mathematician.

as far as the Telos and Talea 1 and 2; the Telos demands a degree of set-up and ’feel’ that is considerable to extract all it can do. setting up the azimuth bridge and anti-skate exactly right is not plug and play. i’ve owned 3 Telos’s including the Telos Sapphire. and owned the standard Telos with the wood arm wand and composite arm. the Talea is a fine tonearm, and i could understand how it could surpass the Telos.

i also own the Durand Kairos (composite arm wand) which is a scaled down Telos. i use it on my EMT948 for stereo cutter head mono’s. it uses a composite arm wand. i slightly prefer that to the Talea.

Dear Chakster, I would not disagree for a moment that the Reed 3P is more beautiful than the Triplanar.  What's more, you can order one in different wood and metal finishes to suit your taste, like a car.  In my opinion, the Reed toneams are sonically competitive as well.  My only point was to challenge the notion that the Reed 3Ps azimuth adjuster was "the best".  It's very good, I'm sure, and does the job adequately.  Comparing my Reed 2A to my own Triplanar, built by Herb Papier nearly 30 years ago, I would have to say that the quality of the adjuster on the TP, taken as a tool only, is a bit higher than the one on the 2A.  The TP adjuster has a better "feel" and allows for finer movements up and down.  Tri, the current maker of the TP, has improved the adjuster on current manufacture TPs even above mine.  By comparison, the 2A is a bit coarse feeling. The 3P may be a different animal for all I know.
Mike L, Do you know what prompted Durand to switch from wood arm wands, the use of wood for which were at the heart of the company philosophy once upon a time, to other materials?  I have heard the Talea, Talea2, and the Telos on a neighbor's system.  My too brief listening impressions suggested to me that the Telos was not much of a sonic upgrade on the Talea 2.  In fact, I might have preferred the latter.  The Talea 2 with a UNIverse cartridge was memorable.  (Same turntable, phono, amps, and speakers in both cases.)  Of course, the cartridge mating is key.

In my opinion TriPlanar is ugly industrial design while the Reed 3p is pretty elegant (remind me of DaVinci tonearm a bit).

It is, but also features the hardest metal bearings used in any tonearm made worldwide. This allows the bearings to be adjusted so there is zero play, something you can't do with a jeweled bearing (lest it crack). So it has the least chatter and sticktion (I made that word up but you know what I mean) of any arm made. So while it might not win any beauty contests, it does get the job done. Of any arm I've tried and used it comes the closest to sounding like my master tapes.

millercarbon   excellent  

• civilized,

cultivated,

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• (also academical),
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• inkhorn,
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• homeschooled,
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• versed

I use a USB microscope also clearthinker but mostly to make sure the stylus is not way out of spec. The worse I've seen since I started using the microscope, which is a PITA by the way, was an AT cartridge. It was at 3 degrees in the wrong direction or 87 degrees. That is tracking the record.  I sent it back. The Soundsmith and Clearaudio cartridges have been very accurate and just setting the arm parallel to the record would be fine.

I have Pure Vinyl which is a Program I use to record records to the computer. It has digital RIAA correction which I have not had a chance to try because you need a phono stage that can bypass it's correction circuit. Anyway, I have recorded samples of the same record at various angles + - 2 degrees and you can AB them. I can not hear a difference on electrostatic speakers. Now we will hear that "digitizing the record changes it so you can't hear the difference" or "Your hearing probably sucks." I agree. You can't trust anyone's hearing. I do not trust my own which is why I like running these silly experiments. Digitizing the music at 24/192 is invisible. It sounds just like a turntable, warts and all.

Thanks mijostyn.
I quite agree a degree or two of VTA cannot be heard.
I was just trying to be nice and pander to Miller and others who say it can, but not in blind tests.
Fremer measures his with a microscope although his ears are aging now.
Ho hum.

Mike Lavigne, I’ve always admired your system and your knowledge and experience. Thanks for contributing here. I’m assuming you are referring to the Durand (at least in part). I’ll look into that once again

thanks.

my room was used for some early Durand tone arm testing, so i heard the various versions, and owned the Talea and then the Talea 2, which did allow for on the fly VTA adjustment. then he developed the Telos, which was higher performance with more mechanical solidity. and now the Tosca even better. neither has on-the-fly VTA adjustment.

i also owned a Triplaner which VTA could be adjusted on-the-fly, and a number of arms bettered it in my particular system. it certainly holds it’s own among choices in it’s price range, i still like it. but it’s not the last word for sure.

hard to pin-point one feature and connect it to why another arm surpasses it. but solidity in the base and bearing tower seems to be a significant factor in ultimate performance. what does it take to engineer in VTA on-the-fly and is it a compromise somewhere?

with the Rockport it was not. but now that would be a $300k-$500k turntable with that arm. it was hugely overbuilt. but that’s what it takes at the top of the food chain. i’m not an engineer, just an observer.

YMMV.

Erudition elevated. Check. Thanks!

Thanks Millercarbon for reminding me of the words pedantic, polemics and noobs.   

Yes, too much time and electrons have been wasted on trying to make the SRA/VTA differentiation understandable or pertinent.

I've heard/read Michael Fremer and Harry Weisfeld mention that any cartridge - even an expensive one - with a glued-on stylus is more likely than not to be askew in some form (tilted, rotated), so that for me throws any talk of getting the cartridge/tonearm/cantilever parallel with the record out of the window as a definitive suggestion.  It's a good starting point and if you want to obsess with the measurements you certainly can, but ultimately you have to like the way it sounds.  I can't talk for anyone else, but I've never had a come-to-Jesus moment after making the suggested adjustments - usually minor tweaks - using various test records or multimeters (haven't sprung for a digital oscilloscope quite yet), and have always adjusted it to sound good to me; if I can't hear a difference, I set it at the recommended setting and go on with my life.

Unless you can make adjustments from your listening position Vernier adjustments are not a good thing. A tonearm has to be fixed rigidly to the same structure as the platter. This helps drain vibrational energy away from the arm. It also assures the proper orientation of the stylus to the groove as long as you still have the eyesight to set it. Those nasty grub screws have a purpose. Spurious structures also tend to resonate. The most important asset are appropriate scales so you can return to your settings instantly. For most of us tonearms are set it and forget it devices. The more you fiddle with your arm the more likely you are to break something by mistake. I know somebody whose shirt sleeve just got caught under the arm reaching for an adjustment. He ripped the cantilever off. Those of us with workshops know you never work on anything with long sleeve shirts on. Usually it is just you that get hurt. Let's see, what's worse, getting sucked into your 15" jointer or ripping off your cantilever?

Right on Clearthinker, except I doubt anyone can hear the difference between record thicknesses. The actual VTA used to cut records is not constant but can vary a few degrees. I think this is just an example of audiophile nervosa.

A nice test. Turn the volume down and put your ear down by the record. Ladies make sure your hair is tied back, same for guys with long hair.
Listen to your arm tracking the record. Ideally you should here nothing. What you do hear is vibrational energy that is leaving the system and reflecting back on the stylus. If you can hear it so can't the stylus! The quieter it is the better your set up. 

We need to understand that accurate reproduction of wiggles in a microscopic groove can only be achieved if there is a fixed spatial relationship between the TT main bearing and the stylus tip. Otherwise the stylus transmits movement that is not driven by the passing modulated groove.

This fixed relationship must be obtained whilst allowing the arm to move in two planes, so the bearings that do that must have no movement other than those, i.e. no chatter.

This is difficult enough to achieve without building into the spatial relationship three or four more adjustments on the fly.  These will necessarily allow unwanted movement that will break the fixed relationship between stylus tip and main bearing.  Remember we are talking about movements of less than 1000th of 1mm.

In any case it is not necessary to adjust azimuth once it is correctly set.  However thick, all LPs are flat (unless they are warped - and should be discarded).

Accepted VTA on the fly is useful to correct the small differences in thickness between discs, but this is the easiest geometry adjustment to achieve without unwanted movement, by raising the arm pillar using a rack and pinion with low geared adjustment via a wheel control that can be calibrated to achieve total accuracy for a record of known thickness when correctly set up at a base value.

Leave the rest well alone.

Pete Riggle make an adaptator for your own arm. The VTAF. I use it with my origin live conqueror mk II and am very pleased. Following a report from 10 audio Jerry Siegel found that this arm sound better with the VTAF.

My VPI Classic 2 has that feature.

Mike

TransFi Terminator is a possibility. It’s a linear tracking hybrid: air bearing for horizontal, pivot for vertical.

VTA is easily adjusted on the fly. Beam horizontality is easily adjusted on the fly - and this is also a small azimuth adjustment. Large azimuth adjustments are a pain, but intuitive; ditto tangentiality, ditto VTF. All adjustments are reasonably stable and repeatable.

Low pressure air means no messy air supply maintenance.

So for a little pain and $1k you can have an instrument which competes with anything that costs less than a new car. IMO. I have two in an ESL based system, running a Koetsu and a Miyajima.

OP's question about what do other tonearms do?

MOST VPI unipivot arms (NOT the stock Classic 1 arm) lift the entire base on which the pivot is located.  The mechanism uses a fine-pitch screw to accessible on the arm base to make the adjustment.  Allos good on-the-fly adjustment.  

For a lot of tonearms with a "standard size" arm pillar, there is the Easy VTA base.  It replaces the original tonearm base with a hole and set screw for the arm pillar.  A fine pitch screw system using parts from a micrometer is used to gently raise or lower the arm at the arm at the pillar while the record is playing.  Once the correct VTA / SRA is attained, a set screw can be used to lock the mechanism in place.  Works GREAT on FR, Grace, Jelco and (IIRC) Linn arms.  I'm using it with a Jelco TK-850L.  Best combination I've heard.  

This last reply beat me to it. Most VPI tone arms allow VTA adjustment on the fly. And decades ago Technics produced some gorgeous tone arms with infinitely adjustable VTA that felt like adjusting a lens on a fine camera.

Most of us adjust VTA for best sound so it doesn't ultimately matter in this case what SRA is.

By the way always adjust vertical tracking force 1st. Changing VTF will also change VTA. In fact if your arm doesn't have fine vertical djustment you can use VTF adjustment for fine tuning VTA if your arm permits fine tuning VTF. First set up the hight of the arm for a VTA that sounds good after setting the VTF in the middle of the recommended range. Then very slight adjustments up and down of VTF are also fine VTA adjustments that should have no significant affect on cartridge tracking.

VPI arms are easily adjusted....once you found what you like why bother

Probably not what you’re looking for but my Schiit Sol has all of those features and punches way above its weight in the sound quality category. Mine was the last run of pure b-spec after all their beta testing improvements and then went through with the recommended upgrades and a great cartridge for my budget. Biggest difference in the sound quality came from proper vta/sra and the azimuth. Getting that right will get the tonal balance spot on and makes that center image snap perfectly in place. I know lots of the hifi crowd scoff at Schiit for their focus on reasonable cost gear but holy crap does it sound good. If you like tinkering to always try and get a little better performance and if you can get your hands on one, they’re worth it for sure. Just my thoughts as I sit here tapping my toes to the music.

Oh, sorry, there is one thing I did miss that should be fixed. The two things you want in an arm are VTA on the fly and a hard wired integral phono lead. Cartridge output is the faintest in all of audio. The last thing you want is a delicate signal going through a lot of connections. So hard wired phono lead, no detachable arm wands or head shells. 

VTA and SRA are different technically, and in audio you will find incredibly tedious and impressively pedantic polemics explaining in excruciating detail why they are not the same. Functionally however when you adjust VTA you adjust SRA, and vice versa. One more thing people who understand a lot less than they think love to throw at noobs to keep them from leapfrogging them, something you will have no problem whatsoever doing, provided only you listen to me and not them.

This is all so freaking simple you have no idea. Nor will you, not for many years (if even then), if you keep on reading drivel like what you pasted above. The problem with that kind of stuff, it takes me ten pages to explain why you should never have read it in the first place. Ten pages that could have been spent going forward instead of correcting mistakes from the past.

Great, extremely knowledgeable, and helpful comments. Thank you. Millercarbon, like you, I always assumed that VTA and SRA were the same, then the other day while I was looking at the Acoustical Systems Smartstylus, I saw this, which caused me some confusion:

"VTA is a different animal than SRA
and requires a different setting for precise
measurement.
While the SRA is an angle depending on the
position of the stylus in the record’s groove, the
VTA refers to the angle between the record’s
surface as the long leg (long cathetus) of a right
angle triangle, the actual suspension bracket of
the cantilever inside the cartridge as one end of
the hypotenuse (and this point with a vertical
line down to the record’s surface being the
short leg) and the stylus tip the other end of the
hypotenuse.
Thus the cantilever is NOT parallel or in-line
with the desired VTA.
While the cantilever may be used as a mere
helping line, the VTA is to be determined from
the tip of your stylus towards the suspension
point in the cartridge in relation to the record’s
surface."

Chakster, that's a very nice 3P. I've had my eyes on them for awhile now.

Williewonka (Steve), it's very exciting to hear about the Audiomods arm. I'm going to look into it. I like the price!

Mike Lavigne, I've always admired your system and your knowledge and experience. Thanks for contributing here. I'm assuming you are referring to the Durand (at least in part). I'll look into that once again.

mechanical complexity can also be compromise. the more adjustments involved, the higher the material quality and precision requirements for the same level of performance. no free lunches.

some of my earlier arms did have VTA adjustment on the fly including some mentioned. my current arms are better performing (i prefer them) but can’t do that. the exception was my Rockport Sirius III linear tracker; but it’s build quality was off the charts.

bearing towers need to be rock solid.

the point i’m making is that beware of buying features without considering the whole picture. is VTA important? yes critical. what is the net performance result of on-the-fly VTA adjustment capability on a particular arm? does it exact a cost?

i suppose it comes down to your expectations for arm performance.

Every manufacturer making everything, no matter what it is, they constantly choose between performance and other values like convenience and features. You want a lot of features, be prepared to spend big time, and probably never get the performance you would get for less if only you could realize those features just aren't that big a deal.

Get on the fly VTA, and call it good. 

By the way am I the only one who sees "easy adjustments of VTA, SRA, azimuth, and such" and thinks, "This guy doesn't know VTA and SRA are the same adjustment"? And such. Just get VTA. Eventually when you've figured it out you will thank me.

Sorry but I dont believe that wood doesnt change properties and even though my understanding is limited I cant fathom why anyone would use this as medium for an arm. I will admit that the Reed is a better looking arm, but such things matter nothing to me personally. 

The arm that really intrigues me is the Acoustical Systems at I think about $ 12K.

How can you know that the Reed device is the "best of them"? I own both a Reed 2A and a Triplanar. The Reed is indeed a great tonearm, but the adjuster on the TP allows for finer tuning, not that I think fine tuning is so important. I fully realize that later models of the Reed, e.g., the 3P, may have a more precision adjuster, compared to my 2A. Later models of the TP (mine is already 25 years old) offer even finer adjusting than mine.

There is a fine tuning VTA adjuster on the Reed 3P, your 2A is cheaper discontinued model without very important features of 3p such as Azimuth on the fly the OP is asking for. Also your TP is 25 years older than the new TP. So what’s the point ?


If the OP would like to buy a great tonearm today with ALL adjustments on the fly (VTA with additional fine tuning and AZIMUTH on the fly) then the best in my opinion is Reed 3p.

In my opinion TriPlanar is ugly industrial design while the Reed 3p is pretty elegant (remind me of DaVinci tonearm a bit).

Is Reed the company that uses wood for the arm?

Yes, they use wood, mine is Cocobolo, the wood is oiled and it does not change its properties, it is not just a simple wooden stick. From the new line of Reed I also like 1H and 2G models. Find more images on Artisan Fidelity site.

Cast a wide net, there are at least ten superb tonearm, like Spinal Tap… maybe eleven.
I have a Triplaner but I could easily live w a Kuzma 4 point…. No experience w Reed.
best to the searchers
jim

Is Reed the company that uses wood for the arm?

My vote is for the Triplanar. My exposure to Reed is limited so it is not fair for me to comment. I love my T.P.! 

How can you know that the Reed device is the "best of them"?   I own both a Reed 2A and a Triplanar.  The Reed is indeed a great tonearm, but the adjuster on the TP allows for finer tuning, not that I think fine tuning is so important.  I fully realize that later models of the Reed, e.g., the 3P, may have a more precision adjuster, compared to my 2A.  Later models of the TP (mine is already 25 years old) offer even finer adjusting than mine.  Anyway, the Reed adjuster is a straight up copy of the TP adjuster, not that there is anything wrong with that. There are a few other competitors we are not taking into account, like the Kuzma 4-point.  We can't know which is "best"; they are all probably good enough for the purpose.  I'd be more concerned about the rigidity of the locking mechanism, once proper VTA has been selected.  I apologize if this sounds combative; I do not mean it to be taken that way.  I am taking the "Joe Friday" point of view... "Just the facts, ma'am".

I was wondering which tonearms allow for easy adjustments of VTA, SRA, azimuth, and such on the fly, i.e. without having to go through a lot of effort to make changes, like unscrewing a tonearm from the mount in order to raise the tonearm, etc.

@washline
The best of them is Reed, very few tonearms will give you azimuth on the fly option, vta on the fly is there too, so look for Reed 3p for example! The engineering of this tonearm is amazing, the build quality too. You can find some images of Reed 3p "12 in my old system here.

Regarding vintage tonearms with such options:

The best one (imo) is Lustre GST-801, but without azimuth on the fly (except for headshell with azimuth adjustment), however the VTA on the fly is there. Nice tonearms for a reasonable price nowadays!

Technics EPA-100 (and EPA-100 mk2) is another great tonearm with VTA on the fly.

For Fidelity-Research (and new Ikeda) tonearms we have to buy VTA on the fly base separately and this B60 (or IT-VTA-06) base alone costs more than the entire Lustre tonearm with VTA on the fly. Ikeda headshells will give you overhang and azimuth adjustment options.