Why the sudden popularity of 12 inch arms

Yea that is what prompted me to ask the question as RG has reviewed a half a dozen 12 inch arms in the last few months.

He says they blow their 9 inch equivalents out of the water for playing music.

I think the discussions and debate's that are ongoing is great.

My original point of the post was really to see if any folks had changed from a 9 inch arm to a 12 inch arm and what were the results in your system.

Clearly Zieman has seen positive results in changing to a 12 inch arm and that mirror's RG's review in hifi+.

Me I have had two 12 inch arms for a few years now so I can appreciate the better tracking at the end of a record compared to my 9inch naim ARO arm on my LP12.

Raul

" I change six long tonearms for the short ones because I can't find a real/true quality sound improvement in the long ones"

Looks like you bought some crappy 12 inch arms. Like to share what those six 12 inch arms are ?? So we can stay clear of them :-)

Albert

Interesting that Valin in TAS liked the TW Acustik / phantom as much or better than his reference - the fully decked out Walker.

Is the TW table that much better than the walker table? - given that the walker arm kills the Phantom.

Or is Valin due to give back or sell his permanent loan and he is looking for another :-)

Albert

I was quoting you re the walker kills the Phantom. Or did u mean the air tangent??

What does the air tight bring to the sonic table that beats your Koetsu Jade's??

I have not heard one and have heard differing opinions

Raul, sorry my poetic license for the use of "crappy"

However You quoted " I change six long tonearms for the short ones because I can't find a real/true quality sound improvement in the long ones"

Therefore you must have the same tonearm's in 12 and 9 inch and as you have indicated the 12 inch versions offer no sound improvements over the 9 inch version.

Please tell us what six 12 inch arms in your opinion offer no performance upgrade to their 9 inch versions.

I am certainly interested and I am sure a lot of other people are too, so we don't potentially waste our money upgrading to the 12 inch versions :-)

cheers Shane

heh dudes, you can discuss cars and drum brakes on rev head asylum.

Raul

" VPI, comes from SAEC." I had a search around the web. Since when does any VPI arm remotely look like or behave like a SAEC arm??.

Raul, I am not looking for any specific 12 inch arm, other than my VPI 12.7.

My original question was, why are SME, Schrodher, Brinkman, Kuzma now making 12 inch versions of their 9 inch arms???

Roy Gregory strongly believed that all the 12 inch arms were audibly superior than the 9 inch equivalents.

Yet, with your 6 "crappy" (yes my words)old out of production 12 inch arms, you indicated that the 12 inch arms sounded no better than the 9 inch arms.

Why can RG so strongly recommend that 12 inch seems to be the way to go now, yet you virtually dismiss it based on your old arms. Have you actually heard any of the arms RG was reviewing?? or is he full of shit??

Would a phantom or triplaner or even Cobra sound better if it was designed correctly at 12 inchs, rather than the current size.
It seems that no one has an opinion on this question??

Z

Define MUSIC?? Please don't tell me you are talking about Dianna Krall or alike??

I beleive I gave a hint of some new release pop/rock/alternative music I like.

BTW, I am going to have to go over to halcro's place to listen to the Raven/ Cobra since we both live in Sydney.

Raul

I am only joking with my "crappy" 12 inch arm comments. I was illustrating a point when you said your 12 inch arms offered no performance increase over the 9 inch arms - whereas RG in hifi+ did.

I don't believe I have offered any view of performance whatsoever, except with my comparison to my Naim ARO.

Just interested in the views of other's and anyone that has gone from 9inch to 12 inch.

The fact that we all luv vinyl and continue to buy record's is a joy we all share, no matter how we play em.

Doesn't mean we can't have a debate on any subject thou.

cheers

Halcro
" I had my Regar Planar 3 turntable for 30 years (despite hearing Linns and Sotas) because nothing new sounded significantly better to me. "

This combo I have heard and the Linn is a LOT better to my ears than the rega 3. I demoed both models at home back at home in 1985 before I moved from my old $129 pioneer to the stratosphere price of the then Linn.

Fortunately or unfortunately it was hearing the Linn that got me to this obsessive compulsive luv of music and hifi to play it on.

BTW, Just bought the new Gutter twins LP ( Mark lanegan from Screaming Trees and Greg Dulli from Afghan wigs) - brilliant, dark and haunting. Sonics quite good as well.

Also picked up the new Akron family, Hot Chip and mark Callaghan ( Smog) LP's great stuff.
New Rhianna and Timbaland Lp's are great as well - no great sonically unfortunately - a little compressed.

Z, why would I want the Thriller re-issue?. I have the original!! nice bass sound on some of the tracks as well :-)

re hifi+ pdf. I'll search the article out and email.

So who was the guy who found 18 ton-arms floating down the river?? I am waiting for the punchline