Spiral Groove Centroid tonearm



Anyone has any experience with this new design? It has a rather brief rave review along with the Spiral Groove turntable in the latest Stereophile. It seems like an exciting analog product in recent years, along with Thales arms. Allen Perkins is a respected designer and I am intrigued by his tonearm design and wants to learn more about it.

From what I read, it's a unipivot design with a unique counterweight and bearing housing that concentrate most of the mass at the center pivot point, hence the name Centroid. I am also curious about how it deals with azimuth rocking in a unipivot design. Does it have a secondary ball bearing to stabilize torsional behavior like the Graham Phantom, Basis Vector, and Continuum Coppperhead, or the slightly different Nottingham and Simon Yorke? Or is it a pure unipivot with a spike and dimple? In unipivot designs, it is how the designer handles the azimuth rocking that truly shows the creativity. I'm surprised this tonearm has garnered much talk among the forum lurkers. If you know more about it, please contribute and discuss. Thanks!

Some pictures.
hiho
I have been fortunate to have now heard the SG2 with both the Triplanar and the Centriod arm--unfortunately not in the same system. First of all, for those who have not had the pleasure of seeing and hearing the Spiral Groove SG2 it is really something to behold. Purposefully designed, simple to set up and operate yet packed with intelligent engineering. Both the Triplanar and the Centroid seem an excellent match for the SG2 even though they are night and day in terms of design. Both provide exceptional performance on this table. Without being able to compare them in the same system I cannot say which sound I prefer. However, the Centriod struck me as a more simple and elegant design, where the Triplanar provides more in the way of tweaks and adjustments. Both make great music but I preferred the Centriod's engineering and aesthetics. It is quite unique in several design aspects (that make good sense) and simply looks "right" on the table it was designed for. I wish I could provide more in the way of sonic comparison and hope this helps a little.