Gold plated tonearm

Posted by: Andy Moore on 09 April 2001

Would goldplating a tonearm (armtube or counterweight) affect the sound noticably?

I believe that tonearms are desinged to only vibrate outside the audible frequency range and that goldplating on the base is not uncommon (SME being an obvious example) but could a soft metal such as gold absorb audio frequencies?

Andy Moore.

Posted on: 11 April 2001 by Frank Abela
I've had a look at the site. Rob - you don't state your name anywhere I can see. Might I suggest the Introduction could do with it?

I've had a look at the 'My System' section (whose?:). I find DNM cable to work very well indeed with Cyrus, but I've not been impressed with it as an interconnect. I find Chord Chorus opens things up and lets it breathe, although I take your point about cable prices generally. You should try it and see if it makes enough of a difference.

Having said that, you also have a bottleneck with the Pre. The newest 7.5 is leagues ahead of the old Pre. Change that first!

You complain of major bass problems in the room with many speakers. Looking at the shots, I wonder whether you've tried firing the speakers across the room instead of along the length? This is a weird idea I know, but our old demo room was a similar size and had similar problems. We tried it firing across, and it improved things in one sense (bass) but had downsides in that we were physically too close to the speakers as most of ours are freestanding.

It might work for you, and if you have the space you may be able to move the speakers out a little and get rid of the bungs which I find hurt the openness of 14's.

As to the deck, I don't see a QC power supply. If you don't have one, this has got to be your first change if this is your main source! The difference is remarkable with a decent arm/cartridge combination.

I find the 309 to be quite a nice combination. The V has a tendency to kill the Gyro. I don't know why this is, and adding damping makes it even worse. The best arm for the Gyro in the SME range is the IV. Having said that, we have had some excellent results with the Wilson benesch tonearms on the Gyro, and I've heard of good results with an ARO in the Gyro too. If you'd like a little of that fluidity you get from a unipivot tonearm, these are certainly options you should consider when you come to change the arm, but not before the 25FL has gone I guess.

The 309 can give you much more than the 25FL is capable of. If you like what Ortofons do, the new KontrapunktB is blinding, and good value for money.

Altogether, your system is nicely balanced as it is. If you play both sources frequently, then I really would consider the preamp change - the old is clouded by comparison. If you play the turntable more than the CD player, you should consider the QC and cartridge - OH and a really good phono stage! (Tom Evans of course:)


Just realised - it never ends!
Regards,
Frank.

[This message was edited by Frank Abela on WEDNESDAY 11 April 2001 at 10:21.]

Posted on: 11 April 2001 by Top Cat
quote:
I find DNM cable to work very well indeed with Cyrus, but I've not been impressed with it as an interconnect

Interesting... I find it to be great between my pre and power amps - I'm talking about the branded interconnect as opposed to a length of the speaker cable used as an interconnect, indidentally - and I wouldn't change it. The only fault I'd level at it is that it's solid core and not stranded, and as such the internal wire could potentially break if it was twisted at a sharp angle or repeatedly bent.

Then again, all the wire from the pre-amp to speaker (including that inside my amps) is DNM, so I suppose it is synergistic.

John