12 inch tonearms

Raul, Thanks for the heads up. This has been fun- especially learning about the Schroeder arms. That would be my top choice, but out of my fincancial league at the moment!

I am curious to know of any opinions regarding the less expensive choices.

Dear Raul,
Anyone who has the tools/capability to set up a 9" arm perfectly will be able to set up a 12"er just as well.
But on a 12"er, any deviation from perfect will result in the nullpoints being farther off the ideal(be it Baerwald or Loefgren) than for the same error "applied" to the set up of a shorter arm. All I was saying is that 12" arms are less "forgiving" of misalignment than their shorter siblings.
Not a myth, just plain geometry ;-)

Following manufacturers recommendations, particularly for many vintage japanese arms(no matter which length) is generally not a good idea as almost all of them feature a less than ideal geometry.

How I wish that setting up a turntable perfectly was as easy as you say. The audiophile community would have plenty of dealers to choose from, all(not just a few) of them capable(and hopefully willing) to provide customer support that justifies the markup on our favorite toys. In Germany(considered an analog heaven), that number may not even match the age of my son(now in 5th grade...). And even though there are many consumers now who don't require any assistence/help from a dealer, lots of them still do and many future newbies will.

Lastly, setting up the original Goldmund T3(not even a long arm...) certainly was a pain, but it was nevertheless quite successful. For many, the tweaking/tinkering is half the fun of this hobby(nothing wrong with that).

@ Dmgrant1: By all means, get a 12" arm :-) Check out:

http://www.thomas-schick.com/arm01.htm

Affordable, easy to set up, a good match with low compliance MCs. No business affiliation....

Good night,

Frank

Dmgrant1,

I have a Moerch DP-6 with two 12" arms (6gr and 13.1gr), a VPI 12.5 with two arm wands, and a Schroeder Reference with 9" 12gr arm. I have the VPI and Moerch set up on the same turntable right now with identical cartridges (that particular TT (Garrard 401) has three arm pods and I have three AT OC9/II cartridges from the same lot). I have also done back to back comparisons between the Moerch and the Schroeder, though not with identical cartridges. That comparison comes as soon as I stop working seven days a week.

To my ears and in my system, the Moerch gives tremendous bang for the buck. It is really a good arm. I will be interested to hear how it sounds versus the Schroeder when I move it from its current TT (Nak TX-1000) back to the TT with the Moerch and VPI. My educated guess is that the Schroeder will have slightly more detail, be smoother, more refined in sound, and will move me closer to the music.

I like the VPI because I can do cartridge swaps in less than 30 seconds which is what you need when doing A-B cartridge tests. Swapping armwands on the Moerch takes time as you have to set VTF and VTA and possibly azimuth. On the other hand the Moerch is nice because it has different weight armwands. Thus, I play high compliance cartridges on the 6gr arm and low compliance cartridges on the 13.1gr arm. Of course, if you don't swap cartridges frequently, this won't relevant to you.

Hope this info helps.

This has really opened my eyes to all of the possibilities. Sounds like maybe the VPI is the easiest one to set up and start with?

Rgordonpf, having owned many tts and arms, including the Schroeder and now a Shindo 12 derived from the old Ortofon 12 spring loaded arm, I have to say that ease of setting up an arm is not an indicator of it sound. I loved the Schroeder I had with my Loricraft/Garrard 501 tt. I even used it with a Decca Jubilee. It was very critical what the separation space was between the magnets, but when right it song.

Please listen first and worry about setup afterwards. I now know the benefits of a 12" arm and would buy a Schroeder in a flash were it possible to mount it on my Shindo/Garrard tt. Perhaps some day I will have this capability. I must say that the sound I get with all Shindo is extraordinary.