Vinyl Asylum Welcome Licorice Pizza (LP) lovers! Setup guides and Vinyl FAQ.

---

[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] Thread: [ Display  All  Email ] [ Vinyl Asylum ]

---

[ Alert Moderator ]

---

RE: Gimbal vs unipivot vs air bearing tonearm

Posted by John Elison (A) on June 24, 2015 at 08:55:32

In Reply to: Gimbal vs unipivot vs air bearing tonearm posted by mondial on June 23, 2015 at 20:10:06:

I prefer gimbal bearing tonearms. My tonearm of choice is the SME V, but I like the SME IV and SME 300 series, too. I don't particularly care for the older SME tonearms or the newest M2-series tonearms.

Personally, I don't care for unipivot tonearms because they have too many degrees of freedom. They were originally designed to reduce bearing friction in a tonearm that could be manufactured inexpensively. However, nowadays they seem to cost just as much or more than gimbal bearing arms. They still have slightly lower bearing friction, but modern ball bearings now have extremely low friction, too, so the unipivot's advantage in that area is really insignificant. Therefore, I believe the gimbal bearing tonearm provides greater stability for the cartridge and better overall performance.

Air bearing linear tracking tonearms are probably the most complex and finicky. They also have extremely high lateral moving mass, which is undesirable. Anyway, you asked for opinions and I prefer the SME V and SME V-12 over any other tonearms I can think of at the moment.

Best regards,
John Elison

• SME V Tonearm   (Open in New Window)

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

Kimber Kable

---

[ Top of Page ] [ Contact Us ] [ Support/Wish List ] [ Copyright © 2024, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]

---

[ General ] [ Speakers ] [ Tubes ] [ Vinyl ] [ Digital ] [ Hi-Rez ] [ Video Asylum ] [ Cables ] [ Tweaks/DIY ] [ Music ] [ Films ]

---