Trans-Fi Terminator Tonearm: 2019 Update

@qwin

I visited your web blog and browse through your art work...very nice.

Regarding all your tweaks and modification on the Terminator tone arm, they, too, look impressive. Most of  your modifications have been adpoted by Andrey when I bought my tonearm from him.

What is most interesting is your mounting plate. I'd like to PM you and see if I can buy one from you, if you are willing to make extra. 

I did a long post explaining why I cant make for others and how to go about making one yourself, but it did not publish and was lost.

@qwin HA! HA! It was quite presumptuous of me to think that you would. My apologies! What would be helpful is if you would share the CAD file or a PDF file of the mounting plate. If not, your photos are quite clear, I’ll be able to figure it out. 
 

I have been working on dressing the phono wires as you have this year. My scheme is quite primitive in comparison to yours, but I use medical tape. It’s very thin and about 4cm wide. I tape it on the slider, make a slit at the center, and pull the wires underneath the tape. It works fine. 
 

I think when you start to work on the air filtration tanks, you will find a further improvement on SQ. I am up to 150L of air filtration with a combination of various 20L plastic and stainless steel tanks. But I am in the process of simplifying the tanks by getting a 120L single stainless steel tank with a couple of 20L ones to supplement, less contact point for leakage. Please update your experience when appropriate. 

Sorry I can’t help folks out with these, but some details of the Bracket and other tweaks can be found Here:

And my purpose made Turntable for the Arm Here:

I don't have CAD files for the part, but I will see if I can knock out a dimensioned drg.
I got a local machine shop to mill the three slots, I made the rest using hand tools and a belt sander.
Note the mounting slots are specific to my DIY deck and may not suit others.

I knocked out a dimensioned drg for my Mounting Plate, in Coral Draw. Its linked on my website and also below. Feel free to use this in a non commercial way, if you so wish. DRG

@qwin Thanks a million for the drawing!  As you indicted, the mounting slots are for your TT. I will use  the existing mounting slots for my arm. 

There have been a few occasions when I accidentally bumped into the far end of the cantilevered slider. And there would be a slight twisting at the mountinf plate, not enough to cause a cartridge mis-alignment. But I did wonder about the structural integirty of the plate. You solution solved it. Brilliant!

I noticed the Mounting plate twisted when I was levelling the manifold/Slider. I would get it just right, hovering in the middle and when I tightened the Pivot Bolt the plate twisted and the slider moved at speed to the right. So almost impossible to set accurately. Every time I adjusted VTA it would throw it out.

If you notice, I have turned the slots through 90 deg.
This allows me to position a cartridge anywhere in the long Wand mounting slots and make adjustment at the Mounting plate to accommodate this.
The stock slots are about compatibility with the most number of decks.
Make the slot positions to suit your own deck and run them front to back, in my opinion, this is more useful. I used M5 bolts in 6mm slots. This gives more than enough wiggle room to align the manifold angle.

Wow, I don’t think my Missus would go for a 150L smoothing tank in the living room.
My pump has two outlets, the output oscillates from one to the other.
Common practice is to use a "Y" connector and join the two, before entering the tank at a single location. I am going to try feeding the tank with both outputs individually. Joining two 4mm tubes into one 4mm tube must restrict flow or cause back pressure.
Then I’ll try filling the tank with Polystyrene balls 4 to 6mm diameter.
The air will have to find its way through all the fine passages between the balls, or it may even act like a fluid bed, the air lifting the very light balls. I’m not sure if the flow/pressure is sufficient to do this, so its a suck it and see.
I will fit an inline filter, after the Tank, to stop any small particles going down the line into the manifold. It wouldn’t take much to block the holes in the manifold.

In my case, 60L tank vol was the limit of the original pump. From there on It was a case of searching for the right pump. I am using a Hiblow 40 currently. The nice thing about the Terminator is it works in low pressure, so less stress on connections and no problems with condensation.

I also tried filling tank cotton balls. This would moderate air flow, but it will also increase pressure. You’ll know when to back off on the balls.

How is the Terminator performing on your bespoke SL -1200? How does it compare to the other pivot arms you have? 

Correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems that you are reacquainting yourself with the Terminator after a long layoff. And you are in the process of further optimizing it. I wondered if you have reached out to Vic about his crazy trampoline wand? Or if you have contacted Anfrey about the carbon fiber wand?

Yes, you're correct, I fell out with the Terminator, due to difficulty in setting it up and then maintaining this correct set up. I was never happy with the silk covered Litz wire or the recommended way of dressing it. Also I took my gear to HiFi meetings at least a couple of times a year, and a set up, every time I moved the deck didn't suit. A pivot arm just worked out better for me, the wife was scared stiff of touching the Terminator. Having said all that, when it was on song it bettered anything else I had owned.
During a recent bout of inactivity, with no other DIY HiFi projects on the go, I decided to have one last go at sorting my Terminator. It was during this set up, that I realized the cause of many of my woe's, the Mounting plate was flexing when levelling the Manifold/Sled or changing VTA. Once I realized this, it gave me some new impetus to sort the arm out.
I used to swap ideas quite a bit with Vic, he loaned me his rubber band Slider, were the pivot pins sat on rubber bands.
I have seen his latest wand on his web site, but like with the rubber band Slider, it doesn't sit well with my way of thinking. To much damping and ways of errors creping in to VTA, Azimuth and VTF.
I don't like the Nylon Pivot pins, I prefer Steel pins running in a Nylon "V".
I tried to contact Andrey, re the Carbon wand, but he is not answering emails from the West, he may not even be receiving them. 

I got the modified Terminator Arm finished and mounted to my DIY DD Turntable.
It's rock solid, with the new Mounting Plate.



I need to fine tune things to find the sweet spot and make up my mind if I prefer the sound with/without the 3mm Copper mat.

I mounted the cartridge as far forward as possible, to reduce the effect of different record thickness on VTA.

The external power supply I made still works fine after more than a decade, it’s the only clue that the deck has a Technics SL-1200 DD motor and control circuit in it.
The Platter and its Bearing came from a Pro-Ject RPM9 deck, I made an adaptor to allow it to work with the Technics motor. The platter and bearing is much, much superior to the basic Technics SL-1200 or the SL-1200G_ _ for that matter. The bearing is the one used on the current top of the line Pro-Ject Turntables.

It is really nice to see all the effort put into pressing  the Terminator back into service again, pairing with such a lovely bespoke turntable.  The several tweaks that you have arrived at are really worth  looking into. The mounting plate I am most interested in. Your thinking on using steel pins on nylon ‘v’ instead of the nylon pins resting on bare metal is also worth trying, if only to stop it from moving about.

In the OP above, I had mentioned the fellow audiophile, Owen Young, who inspired my purchasing the Terminator through his blog, https://darklanternforowen.wordpress.com/2017/04/15/terminator-tonearm-new-arm-mount/. There are a lot of similarities between his investigations and all your efforts in optimizing the arm. The nylon pins was his suggestion to Vic, Ithink. There is another interesting, for me, similarity. When I was reading his blog, I had the distinction sense that this person must be a structural engineer or an architect. And sure enough Owen was an architect ( he passed a few years ago ). I had the same feeling in going through your blog as someone in the design profession. And I think you mentioned that you are a product  designer. I too am an architect by profession. There must be a ‘less is more’ aesthetic to this arm that attracts designers, no? Or at least maybe a slide rule aesthetic ( giving away my age). 
 

I am hoping with all the tweaks, it will be more stable in use and you will enjoy the superior sonics for a longer duration. Please report on its SQ when appropriate.

Actually I suggested Nylon Pins to Vic, not saying Owen didn’t have the same thought though. I was discussing the Chatter based distortion with Vic, with the then steel pins running direct on the Aluminium "V" of the Strap. I mentioned I was going to remove material from the Strap and line it with Silicon or Nylon. Vic thought this would add to much extra complexity/cost to his production. So I casually mentioned an alternative could be Nylon pins, as they are available off the shelf and just need a point adding. I never actually liked the idea myself but Vic ran with it and it did cure the chatter. I always felt the pivot bearing needs a firm almost sharp point to work best. The Nylon is a bit to soft in my opinion.
I like your thinking, but I think anyone, not just design professionals can see the benefits of keeping things simple. The low tech approach of the Terminator has less to go wrong or maintain.
Actually I would have designed the mounting and VTA system completely differently. To me the fundamental flaw with the Terminator is the single pivot bolt that locks off the VTA adjustment and the Manifold/Slider levelling. Adjust one and you effect the other, I would have had separate methods of adjusting each.
But it is what it is and it kind of works so I can live with it. Designs are never finished, Vic still tinkers with his, as do I, its all part of the fun and it keeps the old grey matter ticking over.
Tip:
The Screws for levelling the Manifold/Slider are very sensitive in their adjustment, I tend to get it somewhere close, lock off the pivot bolt then do the final adjustment using the feet on my deck. It only takes a fraction of a turn on the feet but it is much finer adjustment and I can get the Slider to float stationary much easier this way.

Sound:
I tried with/without the Copper mat and preferred it with the Copper.
I put the Technics/Terminator with a lowly AT33PTG II up against my heavily modified Lenco idler drive with original Mission 774 arm and much more expensive VDH MC One Special. I preferred the Technics/Terminator.
I put the VDH in the Terminator and this confirmed it was the better set up.
I love the sound and my mods make the arm nicer to use, its the best sound I’ve had from Vinyl. See more comments Here:

@qwin 

On the  newer version of the Terminator that I have, all pins are made of nylon, including the pins for leveling the arm. It would be too difficult for me to take up your tip on leveling the arm using the turntable footers for final adjustments. I will stick with the old fashion way.

Your critique of the Terminator is appreciated. While we’re at it, add non-repeatable VTF adjustments as an additional criticism. I don’t know how you do it, but I fine tune VTF at the start of each listening session.

‘I was not familiar with the Vdh MC 1 Special so I read up on it. A reviewer described it as having similar sound signature as a Lyra Clavis dc. And your description of the MC 1 + Terminator combo sounding like music mirrors my vinyl experience. Especially these past two years, I was able to sourced two TOTL cartridges, a Transfiguration Proteus rebuilt by Anna Mighty Sound and A ZYX Ultimate Astro serviced by VAS audio. I no longer use my critical faculties to judge what I hear. I don’t break it down into distinct low, mid, and high frequencies, weighting their individual qualities, and analyzing how they interact. There is just this continuum and coherence that is felt as music, no artifice. These are cartridges retailing in the $6k-13k range playing on a +$1k arm, entry level phono stage, with terrific results. Who would have known? 
 

It’s a pity so few will hear this arm. I am in a prolonged process of acquiring a second, higher tier, pivot arm. And I believe I will be in a better position to taut the abilities of the Trans-Fi arm when compared the additional pivot arm. In any case, it was a SME V that preceded  the Terminator and the upper hand belongs to the underdog. 

i have a question for you: in working with the pivot pins, both you and Owen mentioned chatter induced distortion. I thought I knew what that meant. But I cannot be sure. What does a chatter induced distortion sound like, which frequency range does it occur? 

@ledoux1238
The distortion, was vibration feeding back through the stylus/cartridge into the Wand/pins. When steel pins were running in the Aluminium "V" of the straps this vibration caused them to wiggle about or chatter. This noise or distortion could be heard through the playback as a break up of the trailing edges on vocals etc. Vic added weights over the pivots to try and stop this, which was partially successful, then went to Nylon pins as a more pliable contact point, giving some degree of damping, which worked better. I went for steel pins running in Nylon "V" which I think works better still, both sonically and in a practical way, as the pins can be pushed into the Nylon, making a small depression and they stay in these, rather than slide along the "V" in use.
Yes setting the VTF is a pain with these disc weights, but sonically better than the original boss and threaded rod with a screw on weight. This was easy to adjust but didn't sound as good. I reset my VTF yesterday and it took me about 20 attempts to get the 1.42g I wanted, must have knocked the wand out of position 3 or 4 times in the process. I set the VTF with the air off and I get repeatable measurements. If yours is varying, I would question your wire dressing, it may be causing slight drag.

@qwin

i tried over the weekend to work on repeatable measurements for VTF, Ito no avail. I usually measure with air on. This was discussed in an earlier post. But even with air off, I am +-0.02g. And the readings with air on and off are different. I looked carefully at the way you dress the wires, I do it quite close. My gauge is one that has a plate right on the platter, but made in China, I assume due to its price. This aspect of the arm’s operation still eludes me. 

@ledoux1238 
0.02g is a tiny amount, but I am getting exactly the same reading every time.
There is a blue sticker in the centre of my scales measuring pad. I do get slightly different readings outside this zone. I stand my gauge on a wood block next to the platter, it brings the measuring pad up to the exact height of a record on the platter.
I am using VERY light and flexible wire, which has improved things in this area. When I used the silk wrapped Litz wire, my readings were all over the place.
Check out my blog for details of the wire I use.

@qwin 

Finally figured out how to post photos. Here's how I dress my wire.

Hi @ledoux1238
Been away for a few days. What gauge and type is that wire, looks like thick, Silk wrapped Litz?
I hate that stuff with a passion and is the reason I almost gave up on the Terminator, horrible, horrible wire. Kinks and twists and isn’t very flexible.
That "O" ring crimp looks suspect, an unnecessary weight dangling on the wire.
Your bundle of four wires, seem to be fouling the slider and possibly the manifold, there is no slack to allow for vertical Wand movement.
I’m not surprised your readings are not consistent.
Wrapping or twisting all four leads together makes a stiff bundle, better to let them separate. Get rid of that crimp and put a small piece of heat shrink on there if you have to, but I leave them loose up to the top of the slider. It will be difficult to put heat shrink on without removing the cartridge tags.
Is that "O" ring not meant to be a ground wire, connected between the pivots?
I don’t use a ground, just the four wires from the cartridge, to keep things light and flexible.
Without seeing it in action, that’s my best assessment.

The best sounding wire I ever had, was the original pure Silver wire that Vic used to supply with the Terminator. Unfortunately his supply dried up and its no longer available, I've searched myself. This was, in my opinion, a little to stiff/heavy, but when you got the dressing right, sounded phenomenal.
The varnish layer on the Copper Litz just makes it to stiff for me. My current 36AWG Silver plated Copper is very, very light and flexible. The PTFE coating is very thin and soft, so the wire is free to move and offers minimal resistance.
If I could find something similar in pure Silver I would use that.
Andrey seems to coil the bundle of wires like a spring, to me, this is not a good method. The fact that the Litz wire will stay in that form and not relax confirms my thoughts on it.

Well I replaced my pump with something quieter.
It's the HYGGER HG095 4W version.
This gives 95GPH/360LPH at 0.02 Mpa pressure.
So slightly larger flow and slightly more pressure, than what came with the Terminator, but not by much.
Sound level is <35dB, which is noticeably better.

Fed the twin outlets, individually into a 5L tank with 4L of Polystyrene balls in it (4 to 6mm diameter). 

I wrapped the pump in 10mm acoustic foam insulation, which lowered the noise further, but only by a small amount. The combination of new pump, twin smoothing tank inputs and Polystyrene balls has definitely improved the air supply.
More importantly, my set up sounds better, smoother, more detailed.
Even the wife commented, saying it sounded better, not knowing what I had done.

@qwin 

Thanks for the comments on dressing my wires. I see your point, and I’m doing some modifications. The infamous silver wires the Vic initially supplied was discussed in earlier posts, unobtainium though. 
 

The Hygger pump looks really nice, like an Apple TV box. The next pimp I used after the original was an Enhiem 400, 400 LPH,  very similar to the Hygger. You should be good if you decide to add another 10-20 L tank to improve things further.