Schroeder vs. Triplanar VII Sonic Differences

Dear Andrew: You already stated that you can't go wrong with either tonearm and you are right.

+++++ " Will a Schroeder deliver dynamics, punch, bass suited to Rock music? Will a Triplanar deliver natural, timbral accuracy? Are both these arms suited to the same music? " +++++ You already receive the YES on these questions.

So what is all about: in my opinion almost only the tonearm designers could think that their design is the best one, unfortunatelly we can't take a tonearm choice only for its design there are several factors around that choice that we have to take in account: guarantee, quality control, price, which one likes you, with which one you will feel happy, wich one mates better to your TT, manufacturer support, inside wires quality, tonearm facilities and the most important of all with wich cartridges do you want to match.
This one factor is really critical to obtain what you are looking for: you can take, for example, a Shelther 90x cartridge in both tonearms and maybe you like more on the Triplanar ( example ) but this fact does not means that the Triplanar is better than the Schroeder it tell me that the 90X works better with the TP, that's all. Btw, there are some other tonearms alternatives out there like: Ikeda, Moerch, Brinkman, Phantom, Vector, SME, etc, etc.

Tom mentioned another top crucial link to obtain the best on the quality sound reproduction: the Phonopreamp.

+++++ " I'm attempting to achieve this same combo in an analog system but to an overall higher degree. " +++++

If this is what you really want then along with the tonearm/cartridges/TT you have to choose the right/best Phonopreamp for the task you are looking for: you can't go here with a lesser than the best device.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

Hi Andrew,

if you can afford go for the Kuzma Airline,
as this arm brings the ZYX Universe to another
level, compared to Schroeder,TriPlanar,Graham Phantom etc.
I know what I say as I have mounted these arm on
the Raven AC TT, and I do posses them all.
Regards KHA

Though I would not argue the potential advantages,sonically,of an arm like the apparently superb Kuzma Airline(and BOY,would I love to own it),there is a clear disadvantage to the amount of attention,that has to be paid to any arm of this type,in the "convenience" area.Being in the form of the air bearing and pump maintenance,tubing runs,dessicant,and potential for humidity to build up on the bearing.Dehumidifier or not!No matter how good an arm of this type is,it IS a "physical commitment",compared to a "pivot"!But,probably worth it,if you are committed.

If I didn't have such a "friggin" busy life,I definitely would have the patience to deal with it,as it really is(from what I'm told,by friends familiar with it)really SPECIAL!!I DO envy it's owners,though.Yet the arms previously mentioned,"all" are superb performers.Some probably a bit better than others,in a given system.

My dear friend,who just recently got rid of his FABULOUS Air Tangent,does not miss it very much.Even though he moved on,to a fairly straight forward pivoting design.In all truthfullness,he simply got tired of maintaining the thing.Though he did have it for many years.

I loved the sound of his analog "rig"with the Straight Line Tracker.It was a clear improvement over all his previous pivoting arms,but ergonomics,and the impact of every day convienience,forced his hand.He tells me he is still thrilled,with his LP sound,so who am I to judge?

Yet,taken to the lengths that we sometimes go to(who am I kidding,we ALWAYS go to)in these threads,the KUZMA does look to be the new "Owner of the Throne",in arms.Sadly I will not find out,too soon!

Best!

Dear Andrew: I never had the opportunity to hear the Kuzma Airline. I owned the EMT and Dennesen linear traking tonearms and heard the Air Tangent one and certainly the sound is different and I mean different but not necessary better. I agree with Sirspeedy about the setup of this kind of tonearms.

I preffer the pivot ones, these have more " guts " than the linear traking airline. I like more the bass resolution and the right pitch of the pivoted designs against the linear trakers.
KHA preffer the Universe sound on the Kuzma one and certainly this combo is better than the Universe with the other tonearms at least in the quality sound reproduction priorities of KHA.

Like almost any " play " in audio the name of the game is: synergy, if we can find the right synergy around our audio device components we will be on music sound reproduction heaven it does not matter if the tonearms are pivoted or linear trakers.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

Raul, SirSpeedy,

Thanks for your feedback on the Kuzma linear tracking arm. This seems a little out of my budget anyway.

I thought your comment about sounding different, but not necessarily better, as well as pivot arms having more guts, interesting. Since the Schroeder is not a pivot in the sense of a Graham or Triplanar, but more of a "floating design" in the sense of an air bearing, does the Schroeder sound lean in the direction of an air bearing more than it does the traditional metal to metal contact pivot designs?

Raul,

By the way, my phono stage is the phono section of a CAT Ultimate MkII preamp (47dB of phono gain and 26 dB of line gain. The unit is pretty linear with good bass response).