Tonearms longer than 12 inches

Clearaudio have been making a 14" variant of this arm for a few years now....
See :

http://www.coolgales.com/store/cart.php?target=product&product_id=31&substring=

Ah...not active links so cutting & pasting required....

I'll save you the trouble, here's the advertising blurb :

"The Clearaudio Unify is designed around a unipivot sapphire bearing that sits on top of a precision hardened steel spike. Other construction features include a stainless steel base, and an aluminium tonearm bearing housing.

This beautifully finished tonearm is hard-wired with Clearaudio's Sixstream cable, a six conductor, Teflon-insulated wire, and offers adjustments for pivot height (vertical tracking angle), anti-skating, and azimuth.

The mount pattern is identical to the popular Linn mount.

The Unify is available in several different configurations:

Tonearm length Nine (standard), 10, 12, or 14 inches

Tonearm contruction Black carbon-fibre, silver carbon-fibre, ebony, or satiné wood

Termination Continuous run from the headshell leads to a one metre cable terminated with Clearaudio's MBC RCA plugs or to an external shielded aluminium box with RCA sockets

Finish Polished silver or gold

The ebony and satiné versions have a slightly warmer sound. Please select configuration when ordering below."

Has anyone heard the new Kuzma 14 inch 4 Point?

Dear noslepums: Audio world is full of many non-sense " things ". Tonearms is no exception.

12"-14"-16" or whatever pivot tonearm is, IMHO, a terrible mistake supported by the tonearm designers/manufacturers and an additional marketing " hype " and nothing more. They take advantage of each one of us ignorance level ( including me ) we music lovers/audiophiles.

Exist many reasons why a pivot tonearm has to be close to 10"-10.5" and no more.
First reason can be the tonearm/cartridge set up it self: different geometry alignments to choose like Baerwald, Löfgren, Stevenson and many more. Almost all audiophiles use Baerwald or Löfgren ( many of us because that was choosed by the tonearm manufacturer. ) because are the ones every one knows about.
These two different kind of alignment set up are very close in between and its real difference is the overhang calculated for each alignment to make the " right " cartridge/tonearm set up. In both cases the cartridge/tonearm offset angle and pivot to center of spindle distance is the same.
That overhang difference that is lower than 0.4 mm makes serious difference on the distortion levels and where/how ( in the LP recorded area/surface. ) those distortions changes its position ( in the LP surface area. ).
Distortions that we can hear it.

What means all that?: think what  that that small distance difference in overhang of 0.4mm does it ( distortion levels. ) and think who of us can mount the tonearm it self and the cartridge with and accuracy no longer than say 0.05mm, this is a hard task for any one of us. Normally we make the overall set up with " error " over 0.1- 0.2 mmm and up. So always the level of distortions are higher that the theretical distortions numbers and that's what at the end we are hearing: higher distortions.

Well, in longer tonearms those small " errors "  during tonearm/cartridge set up the distortions levels goes higher than with shorter arms. In both tonearm cases we have other issue to solve because during set up we changed the effective length and for this set up the offset angle has to be changed and normally no one do that.

In theory with a longer arm the tracking error goes down against a shorter arm and this is the advantage that has the long arms but this advantage is only in static way and things are that the tonearm/cartridge are not static but always in movement during LP play and has to deal with several dynamic critical issues.

The carrtridge needs to ride the LP grooves in " freely " fashion where the tonearm has to respond very fast to the requirements movements for the cartridge stylus/cantilever can follow with accuracy the information recorded on that grooves. A longer arm response to that cartridge stylus needs is way slower that in a shorter arm, this could means different recovery information from those grooves, loosing information becvause the LP does not stop waiting for the tonearm bearing response but goes on and on.

The same happen with the waves in every LP, non LP is absolutely flat but full of micro and macro waves in the surface.
Each time the cartridge stylus is against those waves the cantilever/suspension deflected and VTF/VTA/SRA change ( it does not matters if the arm is static or dynamically balanced. ) changing the quality level of what we are hearing during those waves ( higher distortions. ). In longer arms the problem is accentend because the arm bearing response to come back to orinal VTA is slower than in shorter arms that are faster.

Through the all LP excentricities/off-center the horizontal movements in the longer arms is accented because are longer and all these means additional distortions at micro levels that has influence in what we are listening where in shorter arms thigs are better.

Other issue is that the effective mass of longer arms can makes more dificult to match with some cartridges. Now, we have to remember that this static effective mass during play change to a dynamic mass that impose stress to the cartridge it self during its ridding LP surface, in shorter arms that dynamic mass effect is smaller and with lower influence.

In the other side, a longer tonearms means additional resonances than in a shorter one. In a larger arm those additional resonances/vibrations ( means higher distortions. ) comes through the longer arm wand, arm bearings ( that resist higher arm torsion effects and has to deal with the higher inertia effects too. ) and the longer internal wiring with the very delicated audio signal.

There are other issues against the use of longer arms and in favor of a shorter one.

So, exist no real advantage but ( normally ) higher distortions with longer arms.
Now, that you like it more those higher distortions is not the subject here. Yes, a longer arm sound different but ( everything the same ) not better than the shorter arm that has overall way lower distortions.
Yes, we have to be a TEA to discern exactly what we are listening through both kind of tonearms.

That's my music lover/audiophile opinion but the best judge always be each one of you.

Regards and enjoy the music,
R.


PD. What's incredible is that already exist a 14" unipivot tonearm where unipivots ( IMHO ) is the worst kind of bearing for a tonearm because is totally micro-unstability !