Unipivot Tonearms, Harbeth speakers

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I just had my first experience with both and neither left me very
impressed, to say the very least. The unipivot is a poor design
because there is no stability on the axis that needs to be the most
stable. You need a long tight bearing to keep the arm in a
perpendicular arc.

As for the Harbeths-these are the small ones, and a regular old
speaker they are, but the price is quite high. Maybe the bigger ones
are more impressive, I hope so. My advice to the buyer of these both
was to send them back-but a dfferent arm for the VPI table and get new
speakers altogether.

[Clyde Slick]

On 23 Sep, 20:55, wrote:
> *I just had my first experience with both and neither left me very
> impressed, to say the very least. The unipivot is a poor design
> because there is no stability on the axis that needs to be the most
> stable. You need a long tight bearing to keep the arm in a
> perpendicular arc.
>
> As for the Harbeths-these are the small ones, and a regular old
> speaker they are, but the price is quite high. Maybe the bigger ones
> are more impressive, I hope so. My advice to the buyer of these both
> was to send them back-but a dfferent arm for the VPI table and get new
> speakers altogether.

We made too many wrong mistakes.
Yogi Berra (1925 - )

[Vinylanach]

On Sep 23, 5:55�pm, wrote:
> �I just had my first experience with both and neither left me very
> impressed, to say the very least. The unipivot is a poor design
> because there is no stability on the axis that needs to be the most
> stable. You need a long tight bearing to keep the arm in a
> perpendicular arc.
>
> As for the Harbeths-these are the small ones, and a regular old
> speaker they are, but the price is quite high. Maybe the bigger ones
> are more impressive, I hope so. My advice to the buyer of these both
> was to send them back-but a dfferent arm for the VPI table and get new
> speakers altogether.

I heartily disagree. The Naim ARO is a great-sounding arm, as is the
Immedia RPM. The Harbeth Monitor 30s, 40s and Compact 7s are among
the finest speakers I've heard.

I'm not nuts about the sound of VPI 'tables, though.

Boon

[Jenn[_2_]]

In article
>,
Clyde Slick > wrote:

> On 23 Sep, 20:55, wrote:
> > *I just had my first experience with both and neither left me very
> > impressed, to say the very least. The unipivot is a poor design
> > because there is no stability on the axis that needs to be the most
> > stable. You need a long tight bearing to keep the arm in a
> > perpendicular arc.
> >
> > As for the Harbeths-these are the small ones, and a regular old
> > speaker they are, but the price is quite high. Maybe the bigger ones
> > are more impressive, I hope so. My advice to the buyer of these both
> > was to send them back-but a dfferent arm for the VPI table and get new
> > speakers altogether.
>
> We made too many wrong mistakes.
> Yogi Berra (1925 - )

It is my opinion that the people are intending.

The Monkees

[Arny Krueger]

> wrote in message


> I just had my first experience with both and neither left
> me very impressed, to say the very least. The unipivot is
> a poor design because there is no stability on the axis
> that needs to be the most stable. You need a long tight
> bearing to keep the arm in a perpendicular arc.

Agreed. I built my first unipivot arm when in my early teens.

In those days (1960s) there was at least one production unipivot arm that
was reasonably popular.

It looked a little odd because the pivot was raised well above (an inch or
more) the body of the tonearm, which seems to be a pretty good idea. The
advantage is far greater mechanical stability. I find no modern designs
that carry this feature to the same extent - the pivot may be raised but the
tone arm looks nearly conventional.

The problem is as you suggest - normal operation adds longitudinal and side
forces at the stylus tip that act through a virtual lever arm between the
tip and the unipivot. thus adding undesirable angles to the mounting of the
cartridge.

Since these forces change as the record is played, they can't be compensated
for by the usual static means. IOW, you can balance the unipivot with the
needle sitting at one point, and as you play the record, the cartridge's
orientation can change signficantly.