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Tonearm Geometry and Setup

While this subject matter seems to be of 'crucial importance' for our hobby our discussion about this issue is fragmentary and split over different threads in our forum. As if we are talking about some 'abandoned child' that nobody wants. I thought that this 'child' needs its 'own home' in metaphorical sense or its own thread in the
usual sense. While tonearm geometry seems to be very 'simple' in mathematical sense there are many unresolved questions in the actual sence.
My question for the start of this thread is:
'why are we not free to choose the zero points on the record radius independant of the tonearm used?'

Regards,
nandric

Showing 2 responses by dertonarm

dertonarm
1,042 posts
 
Dear Rdavwhitaker, true. No the question is, what are the best points and what does mean "least distortion"..... least distortion where on the records radius .... the groove is not homogenous, as the radius is decreasing ever more with lesser distance to the label and thus the situation for the stereo stylus is getting more and more "unbalanced.
Cheers,
D.
dertonarm
1,042 posts
 
Dear Nandric, "we" (... we, the people ...) do indeed have a choice which of several options we do choose.
It does depend on personal preferences, stereo or mono, vintage of the majority of the records one owns/plays ( how close cut to inner label ), effective length of tonearm and expectation in sound reproduction/ability of a given audio set-up to recreate soundstage dimensions and acoustical positioning.
Most will fare well with Baerwald/Loefgren A IEC, owners of mostly modern pressings with large wax will do great with Loefgren B IEC, collectors of early vintage stereo records of the 1950ies to mid 1960ies will prefer Baerwald DIN or UNI DIN.
There is no absolute - and there is NO mathematical "best".
It is - as long as this was about mono reproduction only ( and mono only it was when Baerwald / Loefgren A was postulated ) and when one assumes that the music engraved is VERY homogenous without huge climax' towards the end of a piece/movement.
But since music is anything but homogenous in volume or structure nor are all records cut following IEC, we have do address our needs individually.
Cheers,
D.
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