Tír Na HiFi

They're the S2's. How about a pic of your Well Tempered arm :)

cybot wrote: ↑Tue May 02, 2017 4:49 pm They're the S2's. How about a pic of your Well Tempered arm :)

Here you go...

Cyndale wrote: ↑Tue May 02, 2017 5:33 pm

cybot wrote: ↑Tue May 02, 2017 4:49 pm They're the S2's. How about a pic of your Well Tempered arm :)

Here you go...

Oh, oh, oh a thing of beauty! The headshell copied by Clearaudio ;) I'd love to know how it works. Very, very unusual looking design too. I'd say you're dead chuffed with it. Trying to figure out whether it's a gimbal or unipivot? Nice looking Linn too. I still have mine though I don't use it. Will show off a pic or two of mine tomorrow. Stay tuned :)

That's the thing, there is no bearing! The arm sits in a vat of viscous fluid, you achieve damping by raising or lowering the base in the viscous fluid. If you look closely at the pic, behind the main pillar is the small circular bowl with the viscous fluid. Bill Firebaugh was definitely onto something when he designed it. The main 'flaw' with bearing arms is a thing called 'chatter'... ''Whatever the design of a tonearm, there will be practical problems. The problem with gimbaled (fixed) bearings is obvious: the perfect gimbaled bearing would have zero chatter. However, even the best gimbaled bearing has some chatter, and chatter has an enormous impact on a tonearm's sound quality.''

The arm can be adjusted for... damping, azimuth and VTA, what more could I want.

Cyndale wrote: ↑Wed May 03, 2017 11:32 am That's the thing, there is no bearing! The arm sits in a vat of viscous fluid, you achieve damping by raising or lowering the base in the viscous fluid. If you look closely at the pic, behind the main pillar is the small circular bowl with the viscous fluid. Bill Firebaugh was definitely onto something when he designed it. The main 'flaw' with bearing arms is a thing called 'chatter'... ''Whatever the design of a tonearm, there will be practical problems. The problem with gimbaled (fixed) bearings is obvious: the perfect gimbaled bearing would have zero chatter. However, even the best gimbaled bearing has some chatter, and chatter has an enormous impact on a tonearm's sound quality.''

The arm can be adjusted for... damping, azimuth and VTA, what more could I want.

I gathered that from looking at other pics! Brilliant concept. How do you keep the dust away from the fluid? Will post pics of my own 'bog standard' arms in my next post ;)

Here they are. Top one is a NA Ace Space unipivot on an Analogue Works Tom Fletcher derivative spinner. The arm is brand new :) My previous one was the quirky Wand plus and before that the OL Alliance arm. I never liked its looks from the pics I had seen but I eventually succumbed to buying one when my hand was forced due to circumstances beyond my control. Long story! Anyway it looks much, much better in the flesh and, more importantly, sounds good.

The bottom one is my ancient NA Space arm from '97. Another unipivot. This time it's the original Space Deck spinner from the same time. Both decks have the unusual feature of having to be spun by hand to start them ;)

If the mods feel like moving this off topic banter to another thread go ahead.....

I had to make my own cover for the LP12 as the original lid wouldn't fit. The lid I made comes out over the turntable so not much dust gets into the fluid.

Really enjoying the sound of the Quadrals, a good investment. I used to change my gear regularly, but once I got the Well TEMPERED and the Croft amplifiers, the only thing I have changed are the speakers. I find them the easiest thing to evaluate, turntables, cartridges and amplifiers are a different ball game altogether! What Crafts do you have?

cybot wrote: ↑Wed May 03, 2017 12:00 pm Here they are. Top one is a NA Ace Space unipivot on an Analogue Works Tom Fletcher derivative spinner. The arm is brand new :) My previous one was the quirky Wand plus and before that the OL Alliance arm. I never liked its looks from the pics I had seen but I eventually succumbed to buying one when my hand was forced due to circumstances beyond my control. Long story! Anyway it looks much, much better in the flesh and, more importantly, sounds good.

The bottom one is my ancient NA Space arm from '97. Another unipivot. This time it's the original Space Deck spinner from the same time. Both decks have the unusual feature of having to be spun by hand to start them ;)

Probably the most enjoyable part of hi-fi is admiring all the different types of turntables/tonearms/cartridges and yours are a joy to behold. Great pics as well!

Did you not consider asking Noel for a home trial of the Quadrals?

Cyndale wrote: ↑Wed May 03, 2017 9:12 pm

cybot wrote: ↑Wed May 03, 2017 12:00 pm Here they are. Top one is a NA Ace Space unipivot on an Analogue Works Tom Fletcher derivative spinner. The arm is brand new :) My previous one was the quirky Wand plus and before that the OL Alliance arm. I never liked its looks from the pics I had seen but I eventually succumbed to buying one when my hand was forced due to circumstances beyond my control. Long story! Anyway it looks much, much better in the flesh and, more importantly, sounds good.

The bottom one is my ancient NA Space arm from '97. Another unipivot. This time it's the original Space Deck spinner from the same time. Both decks have the unusual feature of having to be spun by hand to start them ;)

Probably the most enjoyable part of hi-fi is admiring all the different types of turntables/tonearms/cartridges and yours are a joy to behold. Great pics as well!

Did you not consider asking Noel for a home trial of the Quadrals?

Good job on making a cover for the Linn to enclose your arm. How would you describe its sound?

Thanks for the comments too. You're right too speakers are the easiest to evaluate. As regards the home demo: it's a long story but briefly I've been trying to replace my Howard's since '08 and as I said before I just cannot get anything that comes anywhere near them and for all the reasons I said before. Long story short: Noel suggested I keep them for the simple reason that my speakers come from an era where speakers were evaluated with ears. Plus I'm used to them and how they do things especially in relation to their quasi transmission bass. Just like himself in fact with his beloved Quad 57's.

Here's the weird thing: I've been badgering Noel to get in the Quadral's this while now. I even contacted Quadral themselves to try and get Noel to stock them on a trial basis. This would been back in 2010 I think. But he was having none of it. When your Quadral's won speaker of the year (2016) in HFW I badgered him again. He kept quiet for a while and then I got the email I had been praying for. I was over the moon! Noel actually thanked me personally for bringing them to his attention as he was really impressed with the range and, more importantly, so were the public. A total win win situation. So you can imagine my embarrassment when I finally got the chance to hear them in his tiny downstairs demo room; Everything was perfect except the bass which I felt was just too clean/tight to what I was used to. Noel knows I detest demoing equipment especially at home so he probably sussed that it would be a waste of time. Now I'm not so sure. At the time he had put his back out so a home demo was out for a while anyway. I've read and reread the original review and they sound like the perfect speaker. A keeper in fact. Maybe now is the right time for that home demo?

Cyndale wrote: ↑Wed May 03, 2017 9:00 pm I had to make my own cover for the LP12 as the original lid wouldn't fit. The lid I made comes out over the turntable so not much dust gets into the fluid.

Really enjoying the sound of the Quadrals, a good investment. I used to change my gear regularly, but once I got the Well TEMPERED and the Croft amplifiers, the only thing I have changed are the speakers. I find them the easiest thing to evaluate, turntables, cartridges and amplifiers are a different ball game altogether! What Crafts do you have?

Here's the Croft list :)

1. Series 5/Super Micro A - my museum pieces ;) 18 valves between them!!!

2. Micronaut/Polestar - a hybrid design with only one valve per amp. Peace of mind :)

3. Micro 25/Series 7 - as above but 3 more valves added.

The ones in use are obviously #2 & 3 with the Analogue Works and Spacedeck respectively....