Airtangent vs Kuzma airline

I must admit Albert,I'm aware(for quite some time)you were never wild about your A/T arm.Yet having two friends who have owned it,the opinions were not as harsh as your memory of it.
They did go to rediculous lengths to source the kind of performance from it,that ultimately did satisfy them.

BTW-both of these hobbyists are absolutely obsessive about bass performance,and have very refined full range systems.The Mercury LP series was written for TAS based on observations stemming from one of these set-ups which had an Air Tangent.I have heard this particular system regularly for ten years,with the A/T arm,and fifteen years before that with different stuff.There is no way the bass was anything less than stellar in that room,with that arm.
You know I don't mean any disrespect,and know you are a dedicated and knowledgeable hobbyist,but like your experience with a 2.2 which could not stay in "setting"(my friend's earlier one has this same problem),the possibility does exist for there to be other variables at play,which may not have allowed you to get the most from your Air Tangent.The arm as I have heard it on so many occassions had superb,pitch perfect,and deep bass.Believe me when I tell you that my friend would never have settled for less.To this day,he is one of the most "well respected" (and bass obsessed) music lovers this hobby has seen.For me to consider the notion that a product like the Air Tangent would quarterback his system,for so long,with the kind of bass weakness/coloration you have mentioned in past threads is incredulous.
I do admit that he was privy to other hobbyists having the same arm,at the same time he owned his.Perhaps he was able to gain some insight that a solo owner could not.I'm just guessing here.No disrespect,again.
The stock compresor/pump was replaced by a very high quality(and expensive)unit,at the behest of another dedicated hobbyist,who had tried it.It DID make a significant impact on the bass performance.I heard it both ways,and my observations are based on this higher quality,higher pressure unit!
It was better than the 2.2,which I like(as I'm sure you know).Yet the 2.2 cannot match this particular iteration of A/T arm in the area of perceived tonality,body,and lack of "tracking personality".For sure,IMO!To me,it makes a large difference in my own experience,as to how I want a system to allow for that certain "presentation".
The Air Tangent allows a cartridge to really "present" itself,and stand out,away from what an arm should NOT be doing!

Sorry for the rant,and I have no doubts the Walker is damn good.I've heard that table/arm combo in super sounding systems,but I have a TON of listening under my belt with the Air Tangent,with a load of LP's I'm lucky to own.So maybe I'm a bit jaded,but you can forgive me for that.I hope!!

Best Regards!!

Tubes108,

I am using the Exprissimo The Lift to cue my arm at the end of the record. Very easy to setup & I love not getting up at the end of a record. You won't miss your cueing anymore on the airtangent.

Some time ago, my friend and me did make a comparison between the Phantom Arm and the Kuzma Airline, both fitted with identical Zyx UNIverse and both connected at two identical warm Klyne 7 Phonostages. It was a very interesting experience and btw. good as the 2.2 is, the Phantom is a total different animal. One of the real great Arms out there. And I agree with Albert, the Kuzma Air Line + Ref. Table is a good combination.

Albert, how will the Kuzma XL with Airline arm be supported?
Brian

Well, I finally got mine set up today. Combination of schedule, and bad logistics. The Finite Elemente floor stand, on which the XL turntable belongs, was lost in transit, and another just sent. I'm tracking its progress like Chloe on 24.
Meantime, my pump (no, not that one) had a problem that I knew had to be a silly thing, but I only just figured it out- the dealer delivered the pump already set up, and one of the fittings was out of place, preventing a complete seal. Moved it into place and bingo, air pressure.

The arm is very straightforward to set up, at least on the big Kuzma table. You do have to read the directions carefully, though, since-you'll say, "I'll be damned if I know the distance of the arm pillar to the platter," you do a couple other things that make sense, go back re-read the directions, and there, as if it were hidden the first time 'round, is the magic measurement, in English, not Slovenian.

The only hearstopping moment is trying to balance the arm- the thing just has so little friction that it gives new meaning to the word "increment." I pulled out an old Technics piezo stylus pressure gauge that I bought new, in 1973 or thereabouts, and got the pressure I wanted- figured just shy of 1.8 on the Titan(i) and then fiddled with arm height, VTA,etc. The tangency or whatever you call it, was dead-on, according to the simple protractor that comes with the arm.
Now, mind you, I don't consider myself even competent when it comes to turntable set-ups, but I got this rig up and running pretty quickly, and it is making music-
compared to the Triplanar VII, I wouldn't worry about losing any bass- this thing is foundational, goes down, down, down- (now that may also be a function of the XL, which is really a beast compared to the Stabi Reference that it replaced, but it isn't "BIG" bass, its deeeeep, with proportion and tonality).
I'm still playing with this thing, VTA settings are a snap on the fly, cueing is easy, nice big lever, easily managed and no skew when the arm ascends or descends, and can't wait to hear it once it has been set up on a proper table, by a master. (Right now, it is sitting on a very heavy 10 foot Chinese mahogany prayer table, on top of an Alvin Lloyd Shelf with his 160lb plus dampers between the prayer table and the shelf- not exactly as god or Alvin Lloyd intended but it's temporary).
As to the 'quiet' of a linear arm compared to a pivoted one, I played with a few in my day (had an ET2 for a little while years ago) and was never a complete believer, given all the attention they needed, but I could hear a difference.
With this arm (combined with XL table, since both are new variables), the silence between the notes is clearly noticeable in a way that wasn't before. It is like everything is brought out in greater relief from the background- imagine one of those three dimensional sculptures by Michelangelo that was never finished- the figures are emerging from the stone, but are never free of it, and their backs meld into something clearly not alive- in that case, a huge block of stone. Here, the figures have emerged, if not entirely, than in much greater dimension- the result is a sense of palpability that the other arm-table combo seemed simply incapable of rendering. Mind you, these are first impressions, and I think the table/arm combo will sound better once it is set up properly.
(The pump is in another room, on a different electrical line- I don't think I could live with it in the same room).