Thales Simplicity review in Stereophile.

audioarcher

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Michael Fremer's review of the Thales Simplicity tonearm in this January's Stereophile is pretty brutal. Are there any Simplicity owners out there that take issue with his conclusions?
 

mep

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Michael Fremer's review of the Thales Simplicity tonearm in this January's Stereophile is pretty brutal. Are there any Simplicity owners out there that take issue with his conclusions?

I respect his honesty.
 

audioarcher

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Yeah, you have to read between the lines with most reviews. I like that he is just plainly stating what he feels is wrong with the gear he is reviewing.
 
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MylesBAstor

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Michael Fremer's review of the Thales Simplicity tonearm in this January's Stereophile is pretty brutal. Are there any Simplicity owners out there that take issue with his conclusions?


For those of us who haven't seen the review, can you give us a Reader's Digest version of what you're referring to? :)
 

edorr

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For those of us who haven't seen the review, can you give us a Reader's Digest version of what you're referring to? :)

Basically, he said that while the technology in this tonearm is very slick and unique, the sonic benefits are not there so it is not worth the cost.
 

microstrip

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I've been noticing that Fremer's reviews are a bit less glowing these days, and I'm encouraged by what I'm reading.

May be the long exposition to the DCS Vivaldi quenched his analog flame ... ;)
 

audioarcher

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For those of us who haven't seen the review, can you give us a Reader's Digest version of what you're referring to? :)

I can try. The issues as I understand them from the review are these. First, the setup jig and instructions were confusing for him and he broke the first cartridge he tried to install.

Second, the jig as far I can tell is very imprecise. It had you aligning the cartridge without putting a load on the cantilever, and the lines were very thick and obscured the stylus. Hard to explain without the picture in the article. Even with the picture it is hard to completely understand how it works. He said "The alignment I achieved was, at best, a guesstimate".

Third, he found the bearings to have too much friction. After measuring the arm's antiskating deflection using his Wally Tools Skater (whatever that is?) , which suspends the tonearm by a thread, it revealed a serious problem. The Simplicity got stuck in whatever position he placed it in. He stated that a truly free bearing system would allow an arm to move freely.

Fourth, the Simplicity still has the issue of skating forces like normal pivoting arms because the headshell is offset. The offset changes as the arm moves across the record from 19 degrees at the outer groove to 7 degrees at the inner groove. The Simplicity uses a magnetic antiskate device. There are magnets between the counter weights that change the antiskate force as the arm moves towards the inner grooves. This is set at the factory and is not adjustable. As skating forces will change with different groove velocity, it would be nice to be able to adjust it for each record (this was my conclusion not Fremer's).

At the end he concluded that with it's high friction bearings and it's bright sonic signature, it was not worth the cost to achieve near tangential tracking.
 

BruceD

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Also the Mfg/Importer chose not to comment in the Mag--probably still smarting!:mad:

BD
 

MylesBAstor

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spiritofmusic

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I understand Fremer didn't get on with the arm. Not surprising since he broke maybe a prized cart. Isn't this becoming a habit with him? Didn't he blow up a Dartzeel monoblock? What are we to make of this, that he's accident prone, the stuff is ultra fragile, or the instructions for use/safety notices are not worth the paper they're written on, or Fremer doesn't know how to read them - please LOL! with that last one.
Btw, just ADORING my air bearing linear tracker, the Trans Fi Audio Terminator T3Pro arm, a tenth of the price of the Thales Simplicity or Schroeder LT. Totally reliable, and in my auditions, beat the Graham, SME and Triplanar that I listened to.
 

MylesBAstor

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I understand Fremer didn't get on with the arm. Not surprising since he broke maybe a prized cart. Isn't this becoming a habit with him? Didn't he blow up a Dartzeel monoblock? What are we to make of this, that he's accident prone, the stuff is ultra fragile, or the instructions for use/safety notices are not worth the paper they're written on, or Fremer doesn't know how to read them - please LOL! with that last one.
Btw, just ADORING my air bearing linear tracker, the Trans Fi Audio Terminator T3Pro arm, a tenth of the price of the Thales Simplicity or Schroeder LT. Totally reliable, and in my auditions, beat the Graham, SME and Triplanar that I listened to.

Are you kidding me? Are you perfect? Perhaps you should also be a reviewer and see how much equipment is damaged in shipping too. Michael has been a reviewer for at least thirty years, has handled probably by now thousands of components and you cite two incidents and then call him accident prone? Really?

Did you read the review or ask Michael what went on with the cartridge before shooting from the hip. And the issue with the Dartzeel I think was explained to everyone's satisfaction.

And aren't you a dealer for the arm?
 

spiritofmusic

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Myles, point taken. Just haven't noticed other reviewers have this bad luck. Wasn't really meant to be taken too seriously, sorry that wasn't plain. Apologies for any offense taken, to Fremer et al. And yes I have destroyed a cart myself charge of hypocrisy stands. But no, I'm not a dealer, why would you say that? Just putting fwd my positive experience of a component in a pretty limited choice category (linear tracking arms). I'm not the only one on these boards that comments on alternative components that work in their system. Happy Xmas to you Myles.
 

asiufy

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And let's not forget the Thales TT+tonearm combo won first prize on a japanese magazine, either tied or ahead of the AF 1 (don't remember exactly now).
That's what puzzles me about Fremer's comments. Maybe the japanese were not bothered by the set up process.


alexandre
 

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