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The Kuzma 4Point tonearm continues receiving praise from audiophiles for its precision construction, ease of adjustment, and contributions to achieving quality sound from vinyl records. Largely unmodified since its introduction in 2008, Franc Kuzma recently upgraded the bearings in his 4Point arms to achieve an even higher level of performance. Now, all 11-inch and 14-inch... Read More »

If you are reading this article, it means you are at least interested in vinyl playback. Be prepared for an amazing rabbit-hole that will lead you to the holy grail if you are prepared to spend some money. I say that to keep the discussion honest, a proper vinyl playback rig can get costly. Is... Read More »

The Odin currently marks Bergmann's flagship in their range of air bearing tonearms. Head of company Johnnie Bergmann did not design it specifically for one of his turntables, but as a tonearm that is intended for universal application also on turntables from other manufacturers. Whilst visiting the company's headquarters in the Danish town of Hobro... Read More »

The Beat MagDrive™ Turntable with Schröder Linear-Tracking (LT) Tonearm Ye Olde Editor, in medias puffus (photograph by John Robinson) Me, I call it "Big Red." Here was a real mountaintop moment for me with turntables earlier this year. It came in two parts:  First, getting to meet Steve Dobbins, the creative master turntable craftsman at... Read More »

In this exciting episode, our good friend and courageous audio guide John Marks of The Tannhauser Gate (http://www.thetannhausergate.com) announces his intention to take on a rebuild on the venerable SME 309 tone arm. But this project will be with a twist! For part one, and to find out what the twist is, read on, dear reader, read on...... Read More »

The KRONOS Pro LE Turntable with Black Beauty Tonearm, photograph courtesy of KRONOS Audio. Take a breath. A shift of gear, now. From reference-grade DSD DACs to reference-grade turntables. This will be the third of three turntable evaluations that I've done over the past year, rounding out what's turned out to be the top three... Read More »

The 12.5-Inch Woody SPU Tonearm™ from Pete Riggle Audio Engineering. If Gustav Stickley (1853 – 1942), the renowned figure of the Arts & Crafts movement in America, were to have made a tonearm to complement his American Craftsman style of furniture, what would it have looked like? I like to imagine that if Stickley had... Read More »

I haven't introduced new tonearms to you for many years, which was due to the fact that—among the rest—really new solutions are extremely rare. Mostly, new models are about variations in the materials mix, in combination with different, known bearing kinds. With Acoustical Systems, however, this is different: The Aquilar tonearm is based on an... Read More »

So in my last Audio Ramblings, I wrote… "Not sure how this came about, but man do I have a lot of stuff here to review… the PS Audio BHK250 amplifier and their AC12 and AC5 power cables, the Aurender N100H streamer, the Entreq Poseidon Grounding box and cables, several items from Synergistic Research (Black... Read More »

We live during interesting times, at least as far as audio gear is concerned. The arena of cheap and cheerful hi-fi have seen unprecedented advancements of sound quality and have provided the frugal audiophile with a means to achieve a level of playback that was only reserved for the well-heeled hobbyists. For instance, manufacturers from... Read More »

The turntable is a relatively simple mechanical design. Its task is to spin the platter with a vinyl disc in an appropriate manner, i.e. at a predetermined speed. The rotational speed should be perfectly stable over time and no external disturbances, including vibration and noise, should be transferred to the platter. In the real world,... Read More »

The Air Force One turntable from the Japanese manufacturer TechDAS that I reviewed in March was a true revelation to me and its presence in my system (see HERE) made for an exceptional experience. It embodies all the design concepts of Mr. Hideaki Nishikawa, his whole experience and heaps of money from the Japanese company Stella, which... Read More »