Trans-Fi Terminator Tonearm: 2019 Update

Interesting about the LT arm, I will try and find details of that.
I'm still experimenting with the filter material in the 3L chamber of my twin tank.
I emptied out the small Polystyrene balls, which are very light and even static off your arm moves them around. I put 1.5L of ceramic baking beads in the bottom of the tank. The kind used for blind baking, about 10/11mm diameter. This will be topped off with 1.5L of 6mm "Airsoft" BB gun plastic pellets. The ceramic beads are slightly irregular and form a course filter, the BB pellets are perfect polished spheres. The smaller diameter of the pellets and precise spherical form will create much smaller passage ways between them.

I have an intermittent problem with my arm.
Occasionally in use, when I come to move the wand back at the end of a record, the slider has great resistance, almost as though it is being sucked down on to the manifold. I'm wondering if there is some form of vacuum effect, where the air is exiting from the holes either side of the slider and there is a venturi effect from the holes under the slider sucking it down. It becomes so stiff, it is easier to move it with the pump off and no air at all. Just repositioning the slider or lifting one end of it while the air is on, seems to rectify this for a while.
I was wondering if anyone else had come across this issue?

@qwin I am happy that there is improvement in SQ. The pump I used before, Eheim 400, is similar to yours in power output, I believe. I recall going up to maybe 60L so there should be plenty of reserve in the pump to experiment.

on a different note, I visited a local audio store over the weekend operated by a hardcore two channel vinyl proprietor. He carries interesting brands mostly from Eastern Europe, J. Sikora, Reed, Holbo…etc. He showed me a Polish TT with an integrated LT arm by Pre Audio. The arm had an even shorter wand than the Terminator and an integrated pump located underneath the arm. In terms of design, it solved many of the problems we are dealing with the Terminator, dressing the phono leads, getting the arm out of the way to remove records,….etc and not very expensive. I was excited to see another humble LT arm. Didn’t get to hear it play though. 

Yes, there is a good improvement in sound quality over the stock set up.
Like many people, I don’t have room for a large array of tanks, which is why I made the point, that this solution is compact, so more practical for these users. It’s an alternative solution which opens up some possibilities for folks like me.
My air supply is located in an unused space, behind a door that is always left open, so out of sight, but easy to get at/maintain. Being in a different room, through a brick wall, means I have zero pump noise in my listening room. I may try some different types of solid beads instead of the Polystyrene, to see if they work better, maybe ceramic aquarium filter beads or even dried peas?
Going for a longer flexible hose, usually means a pressure drop/loss so a more powerful pump may be required. Having said that, mine operates in the first third of its adjustment knobs rotation, so I can give it a try.

@qwin Thanks for the update. The polystyrene balls will help in smoothing out the pulses. Another trick is extra long connecting tube, 10m or more. It can be 'coilied' and that helps too. Do you hear better sound quality? I certainly hope so!

 

I add a photo of my filtration regiment housed in a unused bathroom next to the listening room and doubles as a record cleaning area. In addition to the original 5L can ( in the fore ground ) which I kept for nostogic reason, the rest are 20L plastic tanks and two 20L stainless steel cans in the back (not shown). There is a total of 150L of filtration connected to a Hilbo 40 knockoff pump. It is not as pretty as I would like it at the moment as tanks are added incrementally. But the idea is to replace all the plastic tanks with SS ones.

 

I updated my air smoothing tank and its picture but this didn't post well and is not editable so Further explanation is required and a new picture.
I replaced the stock 5L tank with a chain saw plastic fuel can.
This has two compartments, 3L for two stroke Oil and 5L for petrol.
I fed the smaller tank from the pump and put Polystyrene balls in the tank, connected that to the larger tank and added an in-line filter after it all.
The idea of the Polystyrene balls is to create multiple paths of different lengths, with different arrival times. This would hopefully break up the pulses or at least increase the frequency of the pulses. It does seem to smooth the supply and with a quite compact set up.

@qwin i too have a transimpedance / current mode phono, Channel D and an extra XLR  cable.  I do have to be careful when handling it. 

Prior to threading the wire through the pivot point, I pass the wire through the next hole closer to the counter weight. I was able to dress the  wire so that it clears the hole as it travels through the manifold. In other words, the wire and arm wand do not interact. I quest I have been forced to work with existing wire though your solution works well. 

@ledoux1238

"You use a junction box to terminate the phono wires from the Terminator. Why don’t you run it direct to the phono stage?"

I used to use one piece cartridge to phono stage leads, but to get them flexible enough for the Terminator travel, meant very thin wire. I was using heavy XLR connectors at the time into a balanced phono stage that was a current rather than voltage amplifier (AQVOX 2Ci). I used to transport the deck to shows and have to set it up after every relocation. After snapping a couple of sets of leads I gave up on that idea. Even the weight of the metal XLR’s was enough to snap the leads.
I now have the short leads from the cartridge soldered direct to some RCA sockets mounted on the back of the arm block, these wires are ultra thin, the jacket on each is only 0.28mm diameter. The new silver interconnects are thicker and go between these RCA’s and my phono stage. This is a much more robust way of doing things and suits my requirements.

I don’t use the Molex connector which allows easy changing of Wand/cartridge, as I only use one set up. This at least removes one set of brushing contacts.

I don’t like the cable Andrey uses or his method of coiling/dressing it. But that’s nothing unusual, I didn’t like Vic’s method either.
I do my own thing and think my method offers less wire resistance or drag. The wire I use is both, lighter and more flexible, so a double whammy. I just ordered some more of this Wand wire, to have on hand, as the only supplier I've come across is in Portugal.

@qwin

Wow! The resuscitated and reinvigorated Terminator has really got your juices flowing… really nice work on the silver cables. You use a junction box to terminate the phono wires from the Terminator. Why don’t you run it direct to the phono stage? Phono cables from Andrey came as a direct run, and then I use a pair of Duelund silver foil cables  between a tube phono and a SUT.

if your lengthy erudition is considered a minor rant, I’d hate to be in the head wind of one of your major rants…ha! Kidding aside, I appreciate your thoughts. I think I am in agreement with your attitude toward our hobby, and it’s a hobby. I do rely on reviews for the most part as I hate to interact with dealers in my part of the world, mostly arrogant know-it-all. There is a very vibrant DIY community and a lot of shops that does OEM work ‘for ‘unnamed’ European or US brands. 
 

@bdp24 you are the guru who turned me onto the the LFT-8b which was upgraded to the 8C’s. I have not written to Bruce in a while, but the ET arms are no longer in production, correct? I think I will be able to fit both the Terminator and the ET on my Verdier. Putting records in and out of the platter will be a challenge, but….

 

@ledoux1238: So we are fellow owners of both the ET-LFT loudspeakers (a hi-fi best buy) and the Terminator!

If you get yourself an ET arm, know that Brooks Berdan (the dealer at which I heard the LFT-8 and subsequently bought them) preferred the VPI HW-19 (and later the TNT) for that arm, a combo he sold lots of (I believe Brooks was Bruce Thigpen’s number one dealer). The ET arm has enough moving mass to cause low mass/lightly-sprung turntables to shift their center of gravity as the arm traverses the LP. Not good.

I have my Terminator mounted on a VPI Aries (with a TNT-5 platter and bearing).

 

@ledoux1238
I just made an unscreened Phono lead to go between the Terminator and my Pass Phono Stage, using Mundorf Silver/Gold SG105 wire. Combined with the the Silver plated Copper I use on the wand the results are outstanding.
Using my set up of course, but I had goose bumps listening to some old favourites this afternoon. See the construction on my Cables page under "Premium Phono Lead" Here:

Yes, my other/previous pivoting arms, have all been low to medium mass, hence my cartridge choices were to fit any of my arms. At present I only have the Terminator and an original Mission 774 low mass arm. Having said that, using the 774's damping trough and paddle, with fairly viscous oil (50,000 cST) allows low compliance cartridges to work well.

Minor rant coming, but may be of interest....
There are no hard and fast rules in this game and to many arm chair experts telling us what to do, without any experience of your kit/combination, spouting pure theory, without real knowledge of how to apply it. I'm not having a go at @dover here, this is a general observation.
At my HiFi groups meetings, towards the end of the day, we do a mix and match system try out and the most unlikely components have synergy together, when on paper they are a total miss match and should sound terrible.
The nay Sayers for the Terminator, quote, amongst other things, unequal Vertical and Horizontal mass as a major issue, who cares, it works well, so they are obviously not seeing the full picture. The same with direct drive turntables and the cogging effect. If this was audible, as some claim, how do these decks achieve such vanishingly low wow and flutter figures? Budget belt drive could not achieve any where near these figures, its no coincidence the term cogging effect was used to combat the belt drive falling sales.
If its not physics its psycho babble, with A/B testing, placebo effects and the like, how many of these folks have even studied the subject. It seems they will use any excuse available, to avoid trusting there own instinct, ears and having an opinion of their own.
I like to mod things myself, but I don't throw the baby out with the bath water. The guys that design the gear we use, actually know what they are doing, its their day job. To many bits of kit are butchered by people that think they know better. I find this especially prevalent with loud speakers, where dabbling with low voltages on passive crossovers does not risk life and limb, so the dabblers have a go, spout lyrically about how wonderful they now sound, but the speakers end up in the classified adds a short time later. I noticed this a lot with the Celestion 66 monitors, so many people followed one particular forum thread and modified their speakers accordingly, six months down the line the same folks were selling them, as the magic of the originals was lost. I personally followed every one of the changes and tried them all, the mods were rubbish, they produced a different sound, not better and for every detail they had improved on, there were others that lost out. The author even admitted (very briefly) he had never owned a pair of 66's and was just applying general theory. I threw out his mods, went back to basics, replacing the off spec components with like for like and even putting some original parts back in, the magic returned.
My Pass Labs gear gets criticism from certain quarters as not measuring particularly well. Do you not think that Nelson and his team can't knock out a design that measures immaculately? This is where they start, but then fine tune by ear to get the sound they want, at the expense of a little inaudible distortion.
The whole tube amp third harmonic "pleasant" distortion shows us that its not all about the numbers.
I'm much more relaxed about my approach these days and buy what I like the sound of, rather than what the reviewers tell me measures well, though most of my kit does measure quite well, just not in the top say 5%.
I like the sound of my set up and it certainly gets great comments when I take it to shows.
It can be said, that we will never achieve our ultimate system, there's always something to try or tweak. I look at it this way, when you stop listening for flaws in your kit and you just listen to the music, you have reached your nirvana. Stop tweaking and just buy more music.

This is just one mans take after many years in this hobby, folks can and will disagree with what I've said, I'm not forcing my way of thinking on anyone, just hopping it will resonate well with like minded people.
Enjoy the music!

@qwin I am with you on the merits of the Terminator. @dover is an old hand. He has given me advice  on the Terminator before and advice / grief on my Verdier TT. He He! I am however, intrigued with the ET 2 tonearm

I ask about your cartrige choices  as I seem  to have restricted myself to high compliance and low mass ( 7-9g ) cartridges both MC and MM. I have a AT33 mono and it works on the Terminator. And your cartridge choices seem to be the same.

 

Well I own a Terminator and don't think its garbage, love it and nothing anywhere near its price point comes close. Best £800 I ever spent on HiFi.
@ledoux1238 I'm using a Van Den Hul MC One Special, sounds fabulous into Pass Labs XP-17 Phono/XP-12 Pre and Neurochrome 686 Monoblocks, Canton CT-1000/2 speakers.
In the past, a Goldring 1042 worked quite well, but a Denon DL-301 II worked really well, as did an AT33PTG II.

@ledoux1238 

Nothings changed.

I've always considered the Trans-fi flawed, but I have made suggestions in this thread to help people who have one nonetheless.

The ET will be a learning experience, but I have no doubt you will understand its advantages once you have it running. I purchased an additional one this year - the later ET2.5 - for my end game arm for my main TT. I have a few pivoted arms, most of which I will sell off. I'm keeping my old ET2 as I have many custom parts that I have made over the years.

I would suggest you download the manual off the Eminent Technology site and have a read, even before you buy, it will give you a good understanding of how it works and how clever the design is.

It will run with both high and low compliance cartridges. Set up is very configurable.

https://www.eminent-tech.com/Manuals/et2manual.pdf

 

 

 

 

@dover 

In a 12-10-2020 post on the Terminator, you wrote:

"With a caveat that I have never seen this arm in the flesh...... "

What changed?

You were the one who informed me of Owen's passing, so I assumed you knew him.

.And with your 'garbage' prompt, I am finally motivated to seek out an ET arm. I am a happy owner of Bruce's LFT-8C, BTW.

I can absolutely see this arm as a landmark product in analog, audio history full stop. It is THAT impressive.

You must have very low standards.

The Trans-fi is not a patch on the Eminent Technology air bearing arm which was designed many years prior.

The fundamental difference being that the ET uses a captured air bearing - far more rigid than the floating bearing design of the Trans fi.

The flawed floating bearing design used for the Trans-fi is why you have spent years fiddling with materials, weight, screws, wire dressing trying to get that arm to work let alone sound any good. 

I knew Owen for years, I've heard the arm, it's garbage.

@qwin What cartridge are you using? What have you used in the past?

Vic used to buy the Silver screened wire from HiFi Collective (HFC) here in the UK. They still have it on their website, marked as discontinued! I came across it recently when I was researching what wire I could use.
I had a tidy up, went through some of my boxes of Turntable/Cartridge bits and bobs. I found some of the original balanced Silver/Silver screen leads that Vic made up for me 10 years ago and a pair of RCA using the same, so I have x4 strands 800mm long and x2 strands 600mm long.
I’m tempted to make a new harness for the Terminator. I would use just two strands, the core for the +Signal and the screen for -Ground on each lead from the cartridge. I had a go at stripping and separating the core/screen on some of the Silver wire last night, it’s mighty fine and tricky work, but I can do it.
Mmnn.... I will sit on the thought for now as my deck is sounding so good, but its an itch I think I will have to scratch along the way.
I have my pump and tank on the top shelf of a corner cupboard, where I keep my bottles of whisky, the only way I could fit an additional tank, would be to lose the whisky? That’s a hard decision .

@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. 

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.

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.

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.

@qwin 

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

@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

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
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 

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? 

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:

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.

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.

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. 

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?

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.

@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 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

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.

@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. 

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

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. 

 

 

Hi
On the subject of wands and upgrades......
I’ve been a Terminator user for over a decade.
Back in the day, when Vic at TransFi was fitting steel pivot pins, running directly in the Aluminium "V" of the Strap extrusion, users like myself were experiencing chatter based distortion. I discussed this with Vic and mentioned I was going to try lining the "V" with various materials including Silicon and Nylon. This would not be easy to achieve as a production feature and I mentioned that an alternative might be to use Nylon pivot pins, which are available off the shelf, just requiring a point to be added. This is where we followed different paths, Vic followed the plastic pin route and I followed the plastic "V" route. I removed material from the bottom of the strap extrusion and let in some Nylon 6 strips.

This works very well and by pressing down with finger pressure, the steel pins leave impressions in the Nylon, which stops the wand moving around in the "V" or sliding out when I return the slider to its resting position a bit to enthusiastically.

Another issue I had, was the Mounting Plate was flexing/bending when I tightened the Pivot Bolt. This made levelling the Sled almost impossible, so I designed and made a stronger Mounting Plate.

 

 

This mounting is much stronger.
I will be turning my attention to smoothing the air supply next, maybe filling the tank with Polystyrene beads.
You can see my whole project, including my method of wire dressing, on my Web Blog Here:

@pindac Thanks for the reply.

I had an accessary sent from Russia to me in 2022 and it took two months through its postal service. With the War on, I did not expect a reply from Andrey. 

Anyone has an unused carbon fiber wand for sale ?

Is there not a shut down in the operations of dealing with the postal system within Russia at present, where post is not being sent in, when received by Western Countries Postal Services and not being sent on ti Western Addresses when received by a Western Country Postal Service.

Sanctions I believe are in work.

My own plan to receive a service from a Russian National have been on hold for over a year.

I wondered if any Terminator owners have been in contact with Andrey in Moscow? He is not returning emails.

I would like to order a few carbon wands.

Thanks!

I'd like to relate two recent experiences/queries with the Terminator:

The first has to do with cartridge compatibility.I had been using an Audio Tekne MC-6310 for the past year. It is not a well known cartridge, but sells in the $5000 range. The cartridge never quite worked. There are resonance issues especially on piano music. And  the stereo balance is somehow off. In anycase, I acquired a ZYX Ultimate Omega last month, also in the $5000 range. But the Ultimate Omega is behaving completely in sync with the arm. The soundstage is completely all-enveloping. Music just sounds right with this arm/cartridge combo. Both cartridges weigh in the 8-9g region. However, The Audio Tekne is low compliance ( I do not have figures ) while the Ultimate Omega is middle compliance. 

It would seem that the carbon fiber wand is too light and is not happy with low compliance cartridges. Am I alone in this experience? Terry has developed a heavy wand for his Koetsu Rosewood Sig. Platinum. I had thought that was an issue with the weight of the cartridge and not so much a compliance issue. In anycase, I am wondering how are you dealing with low compliance cartridges with the Terminator?

 

The second experience concerns the surge tank / air filtration experiments that continues to intrigue me. I have added a total of 150 litre of surge tanks. There are two stainless steel cylindrical canners holding 50 litres, and the rest are plastic containers. I had assumed the best way to filter air was through these containers that trap and modulate air flow and that simply running long tubing would not do it. Well, I now that that is not the case. Running long tubing does in fact add to the modulation of air flow. I know there are folks  are placing their compressors remotely and running very long run of tubing to the arm.  And perhaps it is a case of longer is better in terms of air filtration.

Over the past month I had gotten back into refining the air regulation arena, partly inspired by Don @redcars and Terry. The additions of gauge and surge tanks have provided some numerical data points. I am able to make the following observations:

1. The starter kit:

The supplied Sera 220 pump and a 1 gallon surge tank should be considered the most basic kit that will allow the proper operation of the Terminator. The Sera 220 has a max pressure output of less than 1 psi and a 4 liter / min flow. The actual air pressure at the manifold is probably as low a 0.1 psi - 0.3 psi. 

The addition of surge tanks and air filters is I think fundamental in improving the performance of any air-bearing linear tracking tonearm. The terminator sounds very good with the starter kit, but it will only improve will better air filtration, modulation, and damping. The purpose is to minimize as much as possible the air pulsation produce by the compressor. The glider that carries the wand with the attached cartridge should operate in as close to a 'friction-less' bed of air cushion as possible.

2. The signature Kit

Taking the cue from Terry, I began last year to introduce more filtration in the form of additional plastic surge tanks. With the initial addition of a 20 liter tank, the improvement to sound quality was immediate. More detail, more stable sound-stage, ..etc. And then came an additional 20 liter tank as well as a 4" pipe capped at both ends acting as a air filter. The sound quality improved further.  With the last addition I had come to the limit of what the Sera 200 can pump out. 

The 'signature' kit consists of a compressor that can put out at least 3-5 psi. The usual suspect is a Hiblow hp 40, max 5 psi with 44 liter / min flow. I am using a Hiblow clone, Alita, with the same specification. I have a total volume of 80 liter worth of surge tanks. And the pressure out of the compressor is at 1.25 psi. Both Terry and Don have pressure levels at  0.3 - 0.7 psi. The reason for my high pressure level has to with the type of tubing and the total volume of surge tanks. 

It is possible to add more air filtration ( which I intend to do ), the limit being the output of the compressor.  How much sound improvement with the increase yield ? When is the point of diminishing return ? These question I do not have answers to. However, given that the Terminator operates in a low-pressure environment, I think it is possible to extract a bit more. If on the other hand we use a Air-Tangent of Kuzma Airline where the operating pressure is around 35 psi, then the use of even more powerful compressors may be prohibitive for domestic use. I believe this is one of the main advantage of a low pressure air bearing LT arm. It is more accommodating to air modulation. And in LT arm,  increased air filtration is really one of the important factors in maximizing its sound quality. 

In the most recent Analog Corner segment in Stereophile, there is a reprint of Framer's 2019 review of a linear tracking pivot arm, Klaudio's KD-ARM-AG12. He commented with respect to this arm that "the tangential possession is misguided". I am of the opinion that there is not  necessary a clear advantage of linear tracking vs pivot arm. And  the Terminator is always thought of by me as a highly musical, utterly under-valued and under-appreciated arm that happens to be tangential tracking. Given what it is, then maximizing its air filtration potential should really be on every Terminator users' to-do list.

Marc,
Thanks for that input. And Andrey is carrying on the mantle, so hitting a thousand should be a matter of time. 

I believe its 750 Terminators.

Terry,

Congrats on the success of the Panzerholz wand. It looks like your are getting very comfortable with it. 

FYI, the link below shows a pre-Tomahawk wand carrying an Ortofon SPU :  https://www.lencoheaven.net/forum/index.php?topic=1539.0. 

I recall reading that there are maybe a thousand Terminators in circulation. The figure seems high to me. I think there are less than fifty Air-tangents in the world.