Multiple tonearms

I disagree...

JackD201 said:

That or you have indeed found many that you do. It's like Ice cream, for some chocolate just isn't enough.

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Chocolate is enough!

So what's your "chocolate" Jonathan?

JackD201 said:

Ummmmmmm. Yes! Even the ones that aren't "supposed" to match.

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I lived this while deciding for an arm for my late Avid table, and picked an unipivot design, against all odds, it sounded great!

HI Amir,
The alternative, which I have taken, is to have multiple turntables. Why? Because I can.

The multiple arm alternative was really not possible for me because of the turntables I owned.

I had the arms for three turntables. All I lacked was the third turntable. Since I wanted to set up one as a "utility" turntable, one that I would use strictly for auditioning new/unheard used records, I bought a really nice Thorens TD125 Mk1 and mounted a Graham 2.2 Deluxe and an Audio Technica OC9/2 on it. The logic here is this will save my "good" cartridges from that nasty work. It worked out well. The Thorens sounds good. Not hard to listen to at all which is nice since I spend a lot of hours auditioning these unknown records.

I'm not suggesting that this is the best way to go. Three turntables are unhandy in that they take up a lot of space and you need to support them in the system. It happens that I had an Aesthetix Rhea phono preamp that could support three turntables. So, the system problem is taken care of. I had the space as well as an extra Lead Balloon stand.

The other two turntables each have high end cartridges that have different strengths and weaknesses. One is especially good at jazz and vocals and the other is good at classical and large pipe organs. That's how I use them.

But, I'm the first to admit that my approach is an example of wretched excess. I could live just fine with one. But, what fun is that?

Sparky

naturephoto1 said:

Amir,

The reasoning besides making comparisons of different combinations of tonearms and cartridges is that some favor a combination of tonearm and cartridge for different kinds of music. When Chris Brady prepared my Teres Certus 450 turntable, having a mount for a 2nd tonearm was an option but I decided not to opt for it. In my case though, I can change out the stili of my Soundsmith Strain Gauge Cartridge easily for different sounds as well as for 78 RPM vinyl.

Rich

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..I would be really interested in this as I have two TT's one for Lp, one for 78's thinking maybe one could do it all in one: Is that what you do? And how do you avoid the RIAA 33 and non RIAA 78 issue??

egidius

HI egidius,
I don't have any recent experience with 78's. But I'm pretty sure that even in the early days, equalization was used. The problem was there was no standardization. Each recording company had their own recipe. So, for modern playback you can't just eliminate equalization for 78's. Instead, you need a phono preamp or full feature preamp that allows the equalization to be adjusted according to your needs.

I have seen these in the antique world but I don't know of any modern examples. I'm sure there are others here more up on this subject. But you might be faced with designing your own. That, or having a dedicated 78 system. I just don't know the alternatives.

Sparky

karma said:

HI egidius,
I don't have any recent experience with 78's. But I'm pretty sure that even in the early days, equalization was used. The problem was there was no standardization. Each recording company had their own recipe. So, for modern playback you can't just eliminate equalization for 78's. Instead, you need a phono preamp or full feature preamp that allows the equalization to be adjusted according to your needs.

I have seen these in the antique world but I don't know of any modern examples. I'm sure there are others here more up on this subject. But you might be faced with designing your own. That, or having a dedicated 78 system. I just don't know the alternatives.

Sparky

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No, as it is, I have informed myself already: I recently had the unique opportunity to increase my already important collection of 78s to something quite interesting, a more important collection, that is ;-) so I decided to really go for it. I will use a TD124 which is currently being restored with a Rek-o-kut equalizer, which actually should do the job. however i did wonder if I could use the Thorens for 33s as well, hence my question about different tonearms.
I have an early Townshend Rock Elite, which is very nice, if you disregard the fact, that it's not quite evenrunning. a bore actually!!