SP10 MK3 recommendation

Dear Sarcher30: +++++ " There is more than one way to skin a cat.... "

agree with you but that's not my point because IMHO the use of tube/sut on phono stages is the wrong and worst way to " skin that cat ".

About the NFB I can tell you that several today SS designs do not use it any more but that NFB subject does not determine perse a phono stage quality performance level but its overall/whole design and design execution.

For you can understand my statements about maybe is important that you analize and understand which are the cartridge signal needs to when that signal passed through a phonolinepreamp process of degradation this degradation be the lower one, this is: to add the less and lose the less. IMHO there is no contest against a good SS design.

That many persons prefer tubes/suts does not means is right that only means that the AHEE made it very good job teaching we " ignorant " audiophiles that tubes/suts is the way to go when that same AHEE knows for sure are wrong!!!

Please return a little on the time and read what was the scenario/stage when appeared the LOMC cartridges and then you will understand what I'm posting here.

Now, in this regards as in many other audio regards my position almost always is not what is my preferences or other people preferences but what is wrong or what is " right " against very specific references/standars as: accuracy, neutrality, dynamics, the feeling of the music power as we have on live events and to hear and feel the natural agresiveness that live music has.

What you or me prefer has nothing to do with that because our normally self " ears colorations " are a by-product not of live music but a by-product of the time that we lived hearing music in the wrong way through our audio systems: many of us have ears and brain equalized in the wrong way. Time to change: don't you think?, just for fun!!!!

Regards and enjoy the music,
R.

Dear Mikeba316: +++++ " but I see a lot of 12" arms on the Technics tts so I'm not sure about the length.... " +++++

IMHO the today " fascination " for 12" tonearms is only a today " fashion " more than a real advantage over a 10.5" tonearms.
In theory there is only one advantage and this is that the 12" has lower tracking error against shorter arms. I say in " theory " because that theory is not reflected in what we can detect and where we for sure can say: " hey, that was because the lower tonearm tracking error ". We are talking here of so small/tiny difference in traking error between the 12" and 10.5" that IMHO no one can be aware of this " lower tracking error ".
That some persons liked the 12" ones over shorter ones is not because that " tracking error " per se but because exist different kind of colorations/distortions in two same model tonearms that only differ by its length.

In the other side in a longer tonearm the cartridge signal has to travel for a longer tonearm wire and at this stage is critical for that cartridge signal to have the shorter paht we can give it: due to its very low output level that signal is extremely sensitive to degradation of many kind as longer path, emi/rfi and the like, as longer the signal path as bigger the signal contamination.
Other disadvanatage is that a longer tonearm respond not so fast as a shorter one to the cartridge stylus movements needs and this is an important subject.
A longer tonearm push more stress on the tonearm bearing developing higher distortions in the same way that the longer arm wand generate additional resonances/vibrations that degrade the cartridge signal. I can go on and on with other disadvantages on longer arms in favor of shorter ones.

For me longer arms is a misunderstood error a misunderstood of the LP/cartridge needs and obviously a marketing/comercial " hip " to take more money from us customers in change on no single ADVANTAGE OR REAL AND PRECISE IMPROVEMENTS OTHER THAN ADDED COLORATIONS.

In your " place " I will stay with that 10.5" Reed against any 12" tonearm. Do it a favor and left all those 12" owners to follow living in the " error ", I think you don't have to live with.

Of course that everything is up to you.

Regards and enjoy the music,
R.

Btw, I own several 12" arms that I almost don't use any more other that for especial tests.

R.

Gentlemans, please no offense to the 12" owners. I live in the " error " for years ( not only in this critical tonearm subject but in many other audio subejcts. ) following what the AHEE teached me till I take the " destiny " of my audio life by my self and trhough this movement/action I learned and still learn each day in a few years a lot more " interesting " discoveries in audio that in all those years under the AHEE tutorial. Every one of us pass through that kind of tortuous road.

The best thing that happened to me in audio was that AHEE's LIBERATION/LIBERATED.

Today the only audio compromise I have is with. M U S I C !

Regards and enjoy the music,
R.

Raul,

While I agree that much of the fascination with 12" tonearms is stylistic, that is also true for turntables and almost every other piece of "audiophile" gear. But there are still some valid and practical differences that make 12" tonearms useful and desirable for certain applications.

16" (12" EL) tonearms are a holdover from the days of transcription turntables, so-called because they were designed to play 16" transcription disks. Many of these early systems morphed into commercial playback systems designed for audio studios and radio stations, and many of the early stereo cartridges were (and still are) designed for longer tonearms; such as the Denon DL-103, some of the obsolete Shure cartridges and the Ortofon SPU series.

Everyone has read or recited the standard mantra about longer tonearms and lower tracking error. In a perfect world this is true, but in practical terms the actual advantage doesn't amount to all that much. Also, I think that your argument about tonearm wire length is somewhat specious. Unless you were skirting the edge of danger with your tonearm wire or had some fantastic interference, the actual difference for the distance involved between a 10" and 12" run just isn't that great.

Your argument about mechanical damping is probably valid, except that 9" and 12" tonearms are not designed exactly alike and (presumably) a competent tonearm designer would have accounted for the mechanics.

As audiophiles we routinely use the term resonance to describe a complex series of mechanical interactions between the cartridge, tonearm and the arm board or plinth. The fact is that tonearms of equal length but with a similar published value for "resonance" do not act the same, do not sound the same and are not matched well to every cartridge. They are simply not the same. Without getting into a Physics 101 lecture, let's just agree that complex mechanical assemblies made up of different parts and different materials behave differently. While the published value for "resonance" may be the same, different arms will load and transmit energy from the cartridge differently.

In short, the tonearm and cartridge work together as a unit, and some cartridges will simply work (sound) better with longer tonearms.