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In Reply to: RE: Gimbal vs unipivot vs air bearing tonearm posted by mondial on June 23, 2015 at 20:10:06
...but not yet mentioned: a pivoting tonearm utilizing a magnetic bearing.
aka Shroeder tonearm. Its disadvantage is that it is composed of a magnet hanging off a piece of thin cord. The magnet that hangs is held in place by the magnetic attraction of another magnet just a fraction of a millimeter beneath it. Invariably, the cord will wear out and require replacement.
Its advantage is significant, however. No friction. No physical contact between the bearing halves. In the case of the Shroeder tonearm, it is universally agreed between owners of this arm that it does deliver excellent sound quality.
air bearing tonearms, that I'm aware of, tend to be linear tracking arms.
I know of no air bearing in use on a pivoting tonearm.
The unipivot design has an advantage in that it focuses all motion about a single cone/cup interface. Typically this design handles vibrational energies very well because so much mass gets focus at a single point.
gimbal bearing arms can be very good or they can be not so good. It just depends on quality of design and build. Quality of the pivot bearings. (invariably cones/cups or cones/balls in a cup.
I confess to liking gimbal arms that employ a frame work looking rather like a gyroscope. Very space-age appearance in the 1960s and 1970s. Still in use to this day.
-Steve
Follow Ups:
do you have empirical evidence? It is hard to imagine that a quarter turn every 20 minutes in both direction is going to stress a vectran cord:). Sure it will eventually fail. I will die before that.
Dee
True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.
quote by Kurt Vonnegut
"do you have empirical evidence?"
hard evidence of an arm arriving to a new owner with the need for cord replacement. Of course the new owner doesn't know how, so needs to get help.
Not every tonearm. But at least one. Probably more
" Sure it will eventually fail. I will die before that. "
Care to apply empirical evidence to that last statement?
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No. I don't have evidence that every tonearm will need a cord replacement during its working life. But I assume it will.
Another assumption: Those who resist buying one of these tonearms probably make a similar assumption.
That won't stop me from owning one sooner or later.
-Steve
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