1. Home
  2. analog
  3. 1134253743

9", 10" or 12" tonearm?

Can anyone explain why many analog aficionados like or dislike 12" tonearms? What is the main sonic difference between a 9 or 10" tonearm and a 12" one? Is the 12" dogma outdated? I must say that in the past there were more 12" designs (SME 3012, SAEC, Audiocraft) than nowardays. Is 12" for "audiophools" with strong nostalgic feelings (like me)? (Especially when combined with those old Denon 103 or Ortofon SPU).
dazzdax
heidrun's avatar
heidrun
7 posts
 
But. Lets say the Avid Volvere SP. I dont think you have a choise. I guess its only take a long or short arm dilemma. 
Maybe i`m wrong. But i guess a TT is made for either 9" or 12" 
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
4,908 posts
 

Geoffrey Owens of Helius Designs makes a 9", 10", and 12" version of his excellent Omega arm. It is his opinion that the 10" provides the best balance between the advantages and disadvantages of all lengths. 12" arms, while providing significantly smaller tangency error than do 9", have far greater moment-of-inertia mass, generally not a good thing. Geoffrey feels the 10" arm’s tangency error advantage over the 9" is worth the only-slightly greater m-o-i of the arm, a justifiable trade-off. But the m-o-i penalty of the 12" in relation to the 10" is greater than it’s lower tangency error advantage over the 10", an inadvisable compromise.

The introduction of the Trans-Fi Terminator air-bearing linear-tracking arm has changed the landscape of that design. Go to the T-F website for details. Perhaps the greatest tonearm value right now---just over $1000!

noromance's avatar
noromance
1,780 posts
 
I'll just throw in that my two Jelco 750 12" arms sound better with anti-skating off. (Think they look nicer over 9" too)

chakster's avatar
chakster
2,482 posts
 
@dazzdax i also use "9, "10 and "12 tonearms and all of them are great, but for some turntables like Technics SP-10mk2, SP-20 the "10 and "12 tonearms are much easy to use and to mount. Aesthetically "10 and "12 are better (imo). So you can't be wrong with "10 inch tonearms like Technics EPA-100mk2 for example. My reference is Reed 3p "12, it's had to find anything like that, because with Reed anyone could adjust absolutely everything (including azimuth) on the fly (the best engineering).  
melm
309 posts
 
Another advantage of a 12" arm is that once you set the correct VTA/SRA, it changes less with different weight records than does a shorter arm.
More to discover