What tonearm for turntable?

I guess some people ask because some turntable manufacturers actually recommend you not use certain arms. For example I believe Avid says not to use Unipivots. They are sprung tables so I can see the added danger to the styli in that particular case. I suppose there's the fit issue as well with tables with fixed pivot to spindle distance or mounting systems. Other than that, I'm as perplexed as you are.

Hi Mosin,

I cannot get too general but just some examples I have bumped into in the course of learning turntable/arm set ups that do not match are these: ET2 linear air bearing are not matched to Sota and Oracle TTs because of the arm board positioning/setting. It matches well with VPI tables because the 'open' armboard design (bigger area in finding the proper setting of the arm base). Another example is the FR 64 tonearm which is very heavy, I was told that it is not recommended for suspension/spring type tables.They are best suited for a solid plinth turntable. There should be other match-ups but right now these are all I can think of.

Hi Jadis,

I was not aware that the ET arm does not match the Oracle TT. Do you remember that I had an ET arm mounted on my Oracle TT the time I had the Counterpoint electronics and Acoustat 2+2 speakers? It sounded fine to me then or was my hearing/taste different or not trained enough then?

Mosin said:

Maybe I should rephrase. I understand limitations due to fit, etc. What I don't understand is why some people have it in their heads that a tonearm should be matched to their specific turntable for sonic reasons. If that is the case, someone has designed and built a turntable that has inherent and apparent shortcomings. Otherwise, a lot of tonearms would work nicely on it with personal tastes and budgets being the deciding factor. Surely no one would intentionally buy an obviously flawed beast, so why would anyone think a particular tonearm is the just ticket for a particular turntable, and all others are somehow inferior, but only if they are on that turntable? I do realize that there are superior tonearms in this world, but I get questions with the turntable thrown in as the single qualifier for the choice. To me, that is a very weird belief. It is a common one, though.

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Is it common? I guess I don't get around much or have seen very few poor turntables that give you the option of having different arms. I only ever see fit and taste/preference issues.

Mosin said:

Maybe I should rephrase. I understand limitations due to fit, etc. What I don't understand is why some people have it in their heads that a tonearm should be matched to their specific turntable for sonic reasons. If that is the case, someone has designed and built a turntable that has inherent and apparent shortcomings. Otherwise, a lot of tonearms would work nicely on it with personal tastes and budgets being the deciding factor. Surely no one would intentionally buy an obviously flawed beast, so why would anyone think a particular tonearm is the just ticket for a particular turntable, and all others are somehow inferior, but only if they are on that turntable? I do realize that there are superior tonearms in this world, but I get questions with the turntable thrown in as the single qualifier for the choice. To me, that is a very weird belief. It is a common one, though.

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if only it were so simple to make everything compatible with each other, it'd make our lives so much simpler:b our 'table progession obvioulsy has been different from one another (or lack thereof), i've owned several in my time. jadis is spot on re the sota (sapphire, star, cosmos) and etII are a poor match, the sota has a hanging suspension that amplifies footfalls and miss tracking, even with the best isolation its a poor platform for the ET which has specific isolation needs - with the SME IV/V, the SOTA is awesome. althoght the oracle and EtII could be made to work, the late brooks berdan showed me how (not w/o subtantial mods to the suspension). the well tempered table has no suspension and the unique arm design in this case acts a 'sink' negating a suspension altogether. the linn LP12 also hangs on springs, is no better than the SOTA in this regard and you cant use an SME V or a Graham on an LP12 - they're too heavy and compress the spring at one corner making it impossible to balance properly. airbearings like the denessen, airtangent, ET, etc like tables such as the basis debut, VPI HW19, TNT for their larger arm board and ability to balance the arm on the 'table while retaining proper suspension travel - pistonic as apposed to side to side rocking...yeah i know, these are antiquated examples but still relevent.

arm mfrs that dont make their own 'table develop their arm to work best with a specific 'table or small number of tables with similar design metrics. 'table mfrs are no different, they have their favorites evidence the hype over 12 inchers - not many good tables that can handle the big sme, for one.

mullard88 said:

Hi Jadis,

I was not aware that the ET arm does not match the Oracle TT. Do you remember that I had an ET arm mounted on my Oracle TT the time I had the Counterpoint electronics and Acoustat 2+2 speakers? It sounded fine to me then or was my hearing/taste different or not trained enough then?

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Hi Mullard,

Yes, I recall. But I heard that mismatch talk from at least one audio dealer and I recall reading another article that said the same thing. The combination would work, play music, but as far as the optimum matching is concerned, that is where I heard would be the deficiency of the combination. The audio dealer told me that the arm base of the ET2 should be mounted somewhere in the middle of an armboard, just like my VPI armboard, one is free to mount the arm almost at the center. With the Oracle Delphi, the arm mount is closer to the right hand corner of the turntable, so as the Sota Sapphire table, so somehow some hard adjustment must have been done for it to work. That is what I learned.

And to add a little from puroagave's reply:

" jadis is spot on re the sota (sapphire, star, cosmos) and etII are a poor match, the sota has a hanging suspension that amplifies footfalls and miss tracking, even with the best isolation its a poor platform for the ET which has specific isolation needs - with the SME IV/V, the SOTA is awesome. althoght the oracle and EtII could be made to work, the late brooks berdan showed me how (not w/o subtantial mods to the suspension)."

Mosin said:

Maybe I should rephrase. I understand limitations due to fit, etc. What I don't understand is why some people have it in their heads that a tonearm should be matched to their specific turntable for sonic reasons. If that is the case, someone has designed and built a turntable that has inherent and apparent shortcomings. Otherwise, a lot of tonearms would work nicely on it with personal tastes and budgets being the deciding factor. Surely no one would intentionally buy an obviously flawed beast, so why would anyone think a particular tonearm is the just ticket for a particular turntable, and all others are somehow inferior, but only if they are on that turntable? I do realize that there are superior tonearms in this world, but I get questions with the turntable thrown in as the single qualifier for the choice. To me, that is a very weird belief. It is a common one, though.

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I may have heard this a few times but I don't buy it either. The TW turntable can accept 4 tonearms at the 4 corners and I believe any brand can be fitted there. To me, this alone would dispel the notion of superior matches of a tonearm to a table.

I'm sure that manufactures that make both TT's and arms would like you to think that their arms match their table better. I have not tried enough arm/TT combos to make an informed opinion on the matter. Which I'm sure is the case for most people.

It does make sense that different arm board material/design will effect how a particular arm will perform. It could be that different arms will react differently to different arm boards. Again I don't have enough data points to have an opinion on that.

Sean

Speaking about clearaudio tables and their Universal pivoted arm, while it sounds good, it is easily surpassed by the Graham Supreme, ime. Perhaps it's because it is a unipivot design vs a gimble type (Universal). That has been my experience on my Clearaudio table.