Tonearm recommendation

Griffithds
ct0517 - You could neither handle the air nor the water in Mexico City! But you might see the sun through the red haze in the air.

:^)
Griffithds Sounds like my the tonearm will have just as much difficulty as me. Your comments made me think of an automobile owners manual, and the section that discusses the oil change interval for extreme operating conditions.
Mexico sounds like extreme operating conditions, and a challenge, for a captured air bearing. Continued moisture/humidity and/or particles in the air cause capillaries in the air bearing manifold to clog up. First it starts performing poorly, and eventually could lock up. There is a designed pressure difference, between what is coming into the manifold, and the PSI that is maintained on the air bearing spindle. The pressure difference needs to be maintained. To do this the capillaries need to stay clean. Not a problem in a normal controlled environment.

Holy Moly I am starting to sound like an engineer now....but I am just a music lover.  Try to say capillaries 3 times.

Griffithds - Btw - Do I remember reading on this forum at some point that you are an aircraft engineer ?

Asvjerry - yes - the tonearm will be left at home if I ever visited Raul. My comment in the last post about the tonearm's life support system not surviving the trip - was referring to the pump. Its a bulky thing with wheels.

wow 3 posts. Good coffee this morning.

TTNP

(to the next poster)

Dear Ct0517,
First, there is a thriving DIYer population that would have/does have no problem re-wiring vintage pivoted tonearms to suit whatever is one's preference for type, quality, and length of wire. There are even a few businesses that do it for the timid.
Second, if one is purchasing a new pivoted tonearm, there are several manufacturers, including, to name only three, Reed, Triplanar, and I am fairly sure Durand, who will supply said tonearm with just about any internal wiring one's heart could desire (copper, silver, cryo, elfin, etc) and said wire can be ordered up to go all the way from the headshell to the phono stage input jacks.  Both my Reed 2A and my Triplanar are thus configured, based on my philosophy that the best connector is no connector. 

Actually, Herb Papier, the original designer and builder of the Triplanar, is to be credited for being a very early adaptor of the "straight shot" wiring scheme, 15-20 years ago.  I grant you that all the named brands of tonearm are expensive and may be beyond the reach of many in terms of cost, but then there is in fact the DIY route or buying "second hand" on Audiogon, etc. 

This is no criticism of your ET tonearm, and I think you made a good choice to avoid connectors in the signal path when possible.  If I were going to a tangential tonearm, I would also strongly consider the Trans-Fi.  But I don't like air pumps.

ct0517,

   Yes my 30+ years of employment was in the field you have mentioned, but I fail to remember where you dug this information up from?  I guess I will just have to blame that lack of recall on 'old age'!  (grin)
   One thing I also failed to mention.  Mexico City also had one of the 'dirtiest' electrical grids on the planet (population 21 million), with constant failures/breakdowns.  Not my idea of what would contribute to a happy listening sessions!  I can only assume that Raul must use some kind of 'power regulation' in his system.
If not.  ?????
Regards,

Dear don_c55: What in my opinion is a must to have from any tonearm is an user friendly ACCURATE cartridge/tonearm JIG for that set up.

It's ridiculous ( for say the least ) that almost any one of us own not one but several after market jigs/protractors because the one that comes with the tonearm is not ACCURATE or not user friendly.

IMHO, this is the major fault of almost all tonearm manufacturers. If these manufacturers make a good Jig/protractor then no one of us could want any after market device. That JIG is not " rocket science ".

That  tonearm/cartridge JIG is critical and an obligation by the tonearm manufacturers.

That's the " perfect " audio world where we live!.


Regards and enjoy the music,
R.

@rauliruegas I cannot agree more. It's ridiculous that most tonearm manufacturers do not make an accurate, high quality jig to go with their own arms.