From: Subject: HiFi World Superarms review Date: 22 February 2000 15:35 Hi AAers, Here's a review of four classic superarms, coming out in next month's Hi-Fi World. Hope it's of help/use/interest to y'all. Thanks to various AAers (you know who you are) for their help in preparation of it, and to Filemon for his photography! I'll continue to post vinyl related stuff as and when I write it...! cheers, David. PICKUP A BARGAIN Want a classic tonearm on the cheap? David Price looks at four potential used bargains. LINN ITTOK LVIII By many people's reckoning the Ittok was the world's first superarm. Originally manufactured for Linn by the Denon Parts Company of Japan (no relation to the electronics brand), it was designed by a certain Mr Ito to Linn's specification back in the late seventies. The Tik-Tok (as fans called it) evolved over the years with various detail changes (such as a new counterweight), until it reached its LVIII incarnation in 1989. This last version of the Ittok was undoubtedly the best, featuring Ekos-style glued armtube joints. By this time, the price had risen from the original £230 to over £450. Arguably the first arm to espouse the maximum rigidity principle, the Ittok is built for strength. Its large bore alloy arm tube is glued to a perforated magnesium headshell and a robust bearing assembly, housing standard ballraces plus a stainless tool steel central shaft. Very finely aligned, these bearings offer a single, rigid coupling right through to the arm pillar with its three point fixing. The sliding brass counterweight is decoupled to the rear end stub by hard rubber bushes, and thumbwheels set the spring-applied tracking force and bias. Cabling is very low capacitance and inductance copper, terminated by high quality gold plated Linn phono plugs. With an effective mass of 12g, the Ittok is in the medium to high mass category, meaning it will work well with most MCs and MMs alike. One of the Ittok's best platforms is Linn's own LP12, with which it enjoys real synergy. But it's actually extremely effective on any decent turntable, suspended subchassis or not. Its slightly forward, lively character tends to complement most smooth sounding high end belt drives. After hearing a previous generation design such as Grace's G707, the Ittok's bass articulation is immediately apparent. It's both unusually tuneful and very powerful. Later superarms like the Zeta significantly bettered it in the latter respect, but never the former. Moving up the frequency scale, the midband is detailed and open, with good depth perspective. It images well ; far better than the LP12 it usually partners ; but is still a touch vague about the centre compared to the Syrinx PU3 or Zeta. The Ittok's real strength is its musicality. To this day it's one of the most enjoyable non-unipivot designs around, investing as it does a sprightly bounce into anything it plays. Dynamics are also strong, and although quite a way behind the likes of the Zeta and SME V in absolute terms, the Ittok always manages to sound more expressive that its peers. The Ittok has some bugbears though. Treble isn't the most refined on the market, being rather forward and splashy compared to the best of the rest, but still does the job well enough. The maxim about not partnering the Ittok with bright sounding moving coils (such as Audio Technicas, for example) holds true as ever. Bass, although very fluid, can be lumpy and lacks the clout of the Zeta or SME V. Detail retrieval isn't a particular forte either, tending to be cloudy in the midband and fuzzy in the treble. It's such an involving listen, however, that most people simply don't notice; which is its charm. The Ittok is readily available second-hand, and prices are low. The problem is that it isn't the most robust cartridge carrier in the world, so it's easy to buy a pig in a poke. The very last LVIII is undoubtedly the one to have, but is difficult find; pay up to £300 for a minter. Condition is everything - a superb early LVII with one clergyman owner is a better bet that a late LVII that's been on everyone and his dog's LP12 - pay between £100 and £250. Spares availability is good, and for a couple of hundred quid Linn will rebuild your Ittok; a very worthwhile option. WORLD VERDICT: OOOO Extremely musical but hardly the last word in refinement. Market oversupply keeps prices low and makes for some superb used bargains. SYRINX PU3 Back in late 1981, Scot Strachan unveiled his Syrinx PU2 to an unsuspecting world. It was a promising design, but strongly flawed in several important areas, such as resonance characteristics, ease of use and build quality. Enter the PU3 in 1983, substantially evolved and with ultra low resonance and ease of set-up as its goals. At £291 it wasn't cheap, but its quality and design flair were such that it seemed a bargain nonetheless. An odd looking device, the PU3 is reckoned to be the first tonearm to feature a cigar shaped armtube to reduce resonances. Strachan once lamented the fact that few people gave him credit for this bright idea, although pointed out that Isambard Kingdom Brunel had actually used it in his bridges, some years previous! Despite its beefy looks, it's a surprisingly low mass design. Weighing in at just 9g effective mass, it will get the best out of higher compliance moving magnets, as well as most moving coils. Cartridge weight range is 4 to 12g. Offset adjustment is done by unclamping the armtube at its boss and rotating the whole assembly fore and aft on a fine screw thread. Tracking weight is set via a threaded counterweight and then locked with a concentric thumbwheel, and bias is applied by a weight and thread, on the falling lever principle. And in the best traditions of tweaky high end kit, neither adjustment is calibrated! Bearings are top quality, highly toleranced items, and internal wiring is high purity copper with PVC dielectric. Sound quality is extremely good overall, with a particularly lucid and organic midband. Whereas arms like the Zeta give epic, grandstanding performances of every record you play on them, the PU3 is altogether more subtle and cohesive. Bass is lighter and slower with less energy and articulation. But the Syrinx comes into its own in the midband, which has a beautifully natural, musical character. Although super detailed, it's never in your face or showy. Rather, instruments are conjured from mid air in all their tactile, vibrant glory. Soundstaging is gloriously wide, open and deep and imaging accurate yet never pedantically over emphasised. Critics of the PU3 would call it warm and coloured, with a slightly fat, overblown sound. But from where I'm standing it's a true star. Best characterised as extremely 'analogue', it's a great way to unlock the music in the groove, rather than the hi-fi. Clean and natural, it draws the listener in rather than makes him focus on the song's recording quality or the disc's surface noise. The Syrinx PU3 is a fine used buy providing the example you choose is of the one careful owner variety. Pay £200-£250 for a well preserved specimen, much less for a clunker. The PU2 Gold is another possibility, being the latest, most developed incarnation of the '3's predecessor, but they're hopelessly fiddly to set up and use, and always drift out of tune. Pay £80 for a good PU2g with Mass Ring. WORLD VERDICT: OOOO Loveable oddball with a quintessentially 'analogue' performance. Questionable spares availability and age make for low prices. ALPHASON HR100S Just when it seemed that every superarm worth the name had thick, straight tube construction in the idiom of Linn's Ittok, Alphason's HR100S appeared in 1983 sporting classic S-shape geometry. And this wasn't the only oddity, as the HR100 used titanium in its armtubing for maximum strength and rigidity, as SME had done with the Series III and Technics with the EPA500H, some five years previous. Yet more unusual was its thin flat plate headshell, which was ingeniously formed from the front of the arm tube, which also acted as a strengthening spine above it. Its concentric gimbal bearings are of hardened tool steel, with pivot surface inserts of ultra hard carbon. The counterweight system is more flexible than many, with a balance weight sitting on a carrier that can be screwed forward or backward on a hard nylon carrier and then locked by an small Allen screw. As one complete forward rotation of the carrier applies 0.25g, the system obviates the need for a stylus balance to set the tracking weight. Three counterweights are available, enabling use with a wide range of cartridges. In standard guise, it will accept 4g to 12g designs. Bias is by the old SME-style thread and weight, and is also calibrated. Overall compliance is quoted at 11g, making it a medium compliance arm capable of working well with most cartridges. Early arms ran good quality, low capacitance (95pF) copper cabling, while from 1985 the HR100MCS came with the worthwhile option of Mono Crystal Silver wire for a small price premium. The Alphason's sound is an interesting conundrum. In some respects it's absolutely superb, in others sadly lacking. It's beautifully refined and considered nature will run rings around an Ittok or a Syrinx in terms of detail and focus. Midband is extremely neutral and clean, lending instruments a mastertape-like solidity. Soundstaging is well proportioned, with fine spatial detailing and depth perspective. Tonal quality is good, with a smooth neutrality right across the frequency spectrum and no obvious colorations. Bass is punchy and well proportioned, never sounding leaden like a Zeta or 'lite' like the Grace. In so many ways, the Alphason is a real class act. The problem is that it isn't so fluent at music making. Vocals lack power and projection, rhythms are deconstructed rather than played, and dynamics aren't particularly impactful. Everything on the record is there in your listening room, but it never really sparks the imagination or gets the foot tapping. It's just a touch too smooth, a teensy bit bland. In fairness, many will value the Alphason's strengths more than, say, the Ittok's. Lovers of classical and choral music, for whom the ability to neutrally recreate a recorded acoustic is paramount, will prefer it to the lumpy, splashy Ittok or the euphonic Syrinx. But boogie merchants, be they into jazz or rock, should look elsewhere. Second-hand Alphason prices are keen these days. Build was patchy on the very early models, but generally to a high standard after 1984. Construction materials are far more robust than many rivals, meaning you don't need to be quite as paranoid as when buying, say, an Ittok. Prices range from £150 for an early non-MCS to £300 for a mint MCS with all its original packing and accessories. WORLD VERDICT: OOO Beautifully engineered arm with a very refined sound, but not as musical as some. ZETA If ever there was a battleship tonearm, the Zeta is it. Launched in 1982 at £399, build was heroic, with a huge arm pillar housing top class bearings, large diameter armtube cut from 20-gauge alloy and a solid, one piece HE30 alloy headshell with a milled flat underside. The direct coupled counterweight comprises an alloy housing with three mild steel weights inside. Wiring is copper Beyer microphone cable, although later Zetas came with the option of vdH MCD502 for a £90 premium. Physically, the arm resembles the Mission 774SM, which was also made in the same London engineering works, GB Tools. A classic example of a heavyweight tonearm, its 16g effective mass makes it best suited to low compliance moving coils. A removable counterweight insert allows a total cartridge weight range of 17g. Setting up is a tad fiddly, as there's no spring-applied tracking force adjustment. This is good news from a sound quality point of view, as there are no extra bits of metal inside the bearing housing to vibrate. But it also makes setting the tracking weight a more fussy business requiring a decent stylus balance. The counterweight is locked in place by a Allen-headed grub screw. Likewise the arm height adjustment, while bias is applied by a thumbwheel on the arm pillar, but is also uncalibrated; meaning it's test tones a go go trying to get the settings right. On audition the Zeta is a gem. It's a great all rounder with a very strong, even and taut bass, superb midband performance and clean, extended treble. Dynamics are superb, with a tremendous feeling of power and grip. Also top class is the Zeta's resolution, letting the listener focus on one single strand in the mix and follow it effortlessly right through the song. This, plus its superb dynamics and commensurate rhythmic ability, mean it's always a compelling listen. The Zeta has few weak points. You could say it lacks the tonal richness and warmth of some rivals - in fact, detractors call it dull. There's also a sense that its upper midband is a touch coarse, and its critics would draw attention to its overlarge bearing housing as a source of unwelcome resonances. Critics also claim, wrongly in my opinion, that it's a very hi-fi sounding device. True, it's big and butch and pulls no punches, but it 's also a real music maker, if not quite as beguiling is the best unipivots. The Zeta is popular second-hand, with a robust construction that's done no harm at all to residual values. This, plus the fact that it was one of the most expensive around until the advent of mega arms like the SME V, means it 's pricey. Early samples go for around £250, but sample consistency was patchy in its early days. Although the vdH wiring does little for its sound quality, these later versions are the ones to go for. Pay £350-£450 depending on condition and provenance. WORLD VERDICT: OOOO Superbly dynamic, powerful sound. Fiddly to set up though, and too heavy for some decks.