TriPlanar tonearm outward skating issue


Hi all,

I have been trying to research a solution to a recent issue with my TriPlanar VII UII tonearm that I bought  a couple years back.

The tonearm seems to want to skate outwards, even with zero anti skate applied and the weight removed from the little anti skate arm. It is evident at various settings of VTF, VTA, etc. The platter is very level and everything seems to be aligned OK. This outward skating force is very light in the outer grooves and becomes stronger as the cartridge gets closer to the end of a side. In fact, as it traces the lead-out grooves at the end of a side, the tonearm sometimes thrusts outwards across those grooves back into the last track. Very scary!

A visual check of the cantilever azimuth seems to confirm an outward pressure from the tonearm since the cantilever is leaning with the stylus end closer to the spindle.

I can’t seem to find any information online about this phenomenon.

Any insights and recommendations would appreciated.
shayes002
Dear @cleeds : Maybe you are rigth ( for me is not absurd. ) but other than the OP wrm57 had the same problem and after he contacted the manufacturer the advise he gave him was not works and was wrm57 whom did it and posted here what he did it.

In my first post I told the OP to put in touch with the manufacturer, is up to him do it or not instead to following asking about.


It could be interesting that the Triplanar owners can make a simple test: with the AS mechanism at rest put in horizontal equilibrium ( zero VTF. ) the tonearm and see what happen and if no other tonearm shows what the OP and wrm57 posted then there is no problem in the design. In that test the tonearm must be totally inert at any point/position we moved in the horizontal plane.

Well, we can make this test with any tonearm we own and see what happens.

In the other side for me is not absurd that a manufacturer could comes here to help a customer. Never mind, I explain my point.

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.
I agree with cleeds. I’m not sure where Raul and others are getting this inflammatory business about Tri being unwilling or unable to fix this or any other issue with his tonearm. I certainly never asked Tri to adjust my anti-skate, nor claimed he said he could not. I merely asked my dealer to have Tri send me a lighter weight, which he graciously did free of charge. In fact, I have no doubt that Tri would be more than willing and able to bring my arm back to spec if I thought it worth the trouble of sending it to him, which, as I stated, I do not because it sounds great with the lighter weight I've fashioned!


Dear @wrm57 : It was not you who posted:

""" Tri sent me a lighter counterweight but it’s still too heavy. So I fabricated a lighter one still, comprised of two layers of blutak between three small titanium washers. Slides on, stays put, and allows for adequate fine-tuning of bias. """

that post tell us that was you not Triplanar whom fixed the problem because the advise Triplanar gave you not works. Was you too who posted:

""" Yes, the wiring was my first thought, too. I’ve played around with the cable to no effect. """

But lewm had the same probelm that he fixed too in a simple way.

@cleeds , for whatever reasons we have just here 3 tonearms with same trouble. I don’t care about Triplanar tonearm per sé because I’m not an owner of it, I just read 3 problems here with a 4K+ tonearm design.

Question: what’s wrong down there?. Is it a problem developed by the customers or something about the design of that tonearm?

If what Triplanar said to atmasphere is the problem seems to me like a design problem that could be fix it to not repeat again in future Triplanar arms.

R.


Dear @cleeds : J.Carr Lyra designer just two days ago posted about his products ( different issue. ), in the VPI thread after big pressure by customers VPI posted, PL of Sounsmith posted, Atmasphere posted in specific of his product design ( different issues each one of the manufacturers. ), Anvil TT designer posted a few days ago and audio distributors that care of their customers comes/came here and post. 
You can see very clear that it's not " absurd " as you think.

But different " problems with the Triplanar tonearm is a historic " behavior ". In 2005 in a thread customers disclosed 9-10 " pproblems that they solved by it self, by coincidence one of those troubles was the AS issue:

""  Changing the cueing height affects the point where anti-skate kicks in. (Yes, it's weird.) Once cueing height is satisfactory, adjust the short pin that sticks out of the front of the cueing frame. That pin controls where the anti-skate dogleg first engages the knot on the string.  """


After several manufacturer revisions/up-dates ( many over many years. ) today still looks as still  an unfinished tonearm design.

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.


that post tell us that was you not Triplanar whom fixed the problem because the advise Triplanar gave you not works.

Dear @rauliruegas , I know you mean well, but you have misread my post. I did not say that I asked Tri for advice. I only asked for a lighter counterweight. You have assumed that I asked for advice, and then received incorrect advice. I only point this out because I do not want Triplanar to be misrepresented in this instance.

In fact, I should have asked Tri for advice. He would have told me the same thing Ralph said here:

Its also easy to fix- just extract some of the wires from the cable where the clamp is mounted at the base of the arm so as to give the wires a bit more slack.

I confess, I didn’t try this until last night. I’ll be damned, the cable is not fixed to its jacket at the clamp, like I assumed, but slides easily out to create the slack Ralph mentions. (Assumptions can be deadly!) Problem fixed, and my improvised weight is no longer needed. So, good has come of this messy thread after all. Thanks! I hope it also solves the OP’s problem.