Reed 3P Tonearm Has Arrived

My 12" Reed 3P tonearm has arrived! I have to wait for Speedy Steve's custom arm plate before it can go on the KD-990, but first impressions are very positive.

Starting with the nice wooden box - well made, functional, but not fancy-bling.

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Very nicely and sensibly packaged inside:

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Here's the little lever that alters azimuth on-the-fly:

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That's about it for now, since I can't mount it without the custom arm board, but it is nice to see that Reed's Main Effort has gone into the design, construction and finish of the arm, rather than on diamond-encrusted superfluous bling packaging and accessories.

It will be playing at the North West Audio Show with a Miyajima Shilabe fitted, so please come along to say hello and to have a listen.

Speedy Steve's lovely new offset arm board arrived today, so it was time to offer up the 12" Reed 3P tonearm to identify exactly where the mounting holes need to be drilled. Setting the mounting distance is easy because the VTA adjuster knob has a turned finish, with the centre coinciding very nicely with the centre of the mounting plate.

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Having established that distance, the position of the arm at rest in relation to the platter needs to be set, and Reed provide a very helpful template for this purpose:

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Having checked the actual spindle-pivot distance was correct, it's reassuring to see that the reference hole on the headshell tracks the arc on the template with unerring accuracy.

Here's a shot of the bearing cradle, which is magnetically suspended (no tie wires etc). The tonearm pivots vertically on two tiny points in the cradle so the whole arm acts rather like a unipivot, albeit a very stable one and with vanishingly low friction. The lever on top of the bearing cradle is the on-the-fly azimuth adjuster.

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And finally here's a top view showing Steve's lovely alloy armboard

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I have a very good feeling about this arm - it's so beautifully made, and so intelligently designed, that it must sound glorious. Come along to Cranage to hear for yourself!

Lovely thing Hugo, we had a Reed Muse for Nick's LDA system at a previous Whittlebury. Lovely thing.

Thanks to Speedy Steve's new alloy offset armboard, the 12" Reed 3P tonearm is now fitted to my old Kenwood KD-990 direct drive deck, with a Miyajima Shilabe up front. The light is now too poor for photos, but I'll post some tomorrow. It does look very smart!

The listening starts .........

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The Reed 3P is up and running and sounding rather special with a Miyajima Shilabe - a truly lovely natural, detailed yet lyrical sound. Very beguiling with Beethoven Triple Concerto that I've been listening to quite a lot recently (an old LP with Beaux Arts Trio and Haitink). VTA and azimuth adjustments are as simple as they can possibly be. All of which can be seen, heard and experienced at the North West Audio Show