Vinyl Asylum

Posted by tubesforever (A) on November 18, 2005 at 18:09:18

In Reply to: So what you are saying is ... posted by garth on November 18, 2005 at 15:44:09:

effective mass is the moment of inertia.

The tonearm manufacturer's you mentioned are not trying to get to the highest possible moment of inertia.

They are selecting a moment of inertia which best works with the cartridges likely to be utilized on their arms.

Or as we call it "Matching" at cartridge to an arm.

Garth, I hear great things when I reduce the headshell mass in terms of inner detail and transient response. But as I increase headshell mass the midrange becomes more fluid and puts meat on the bones.

I think Mark was correct when he said that there is probably an optimal effective mass for a tonearm. That said, there are a bunch of different cartridges out there and my Grado sure sounds a hole lot better everywhere with a low mass tonearm.

Cheers!