Timestep T-612 'banana' tonearm - mini review

I'm a little speechless at this latest chapter from the 'Chronicles of Tom'. I have to say that in appearance neither arm floats my boat, but I'm just so used to straight armed 12 inchers, I 'spose. Having said that, the Timestep one is a genuinely higher mass one (like the Glanz), and is so obviously suited to Miyajimas, the SPU and presumably, Koetsus. Not sure how that arm-rest works, though. The Ikeda arm looks to have a simple but effective clip like my PU7, but the Timestep one looks like a big black peg ! Your pic. without it suggests that it's removable, which is odd.

Presumably the arm only comes with detachable head-shell, Tom and I wonder what other mounts are available. I have to say that the price is pretty good for that performance and may reflect the fact that it's made in Europe rather than Japan. I assume that the wiring is two piece, as in SME, but wonder what kind of coupling connector is used.

Look forward to more investigative audio journalism, Tom; great stuff !

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Originally Posted by Mike Reed

I'm a little speechless at this latest chapter from the 'Chronicles of Tom'. I have to say that in appearance neither arm floats my boat, but I'm just so used to straight armed 12 inchers, I 'spose. Having said that, the Timestep one is a genuinely higher mass one (like the Glanz), and is so obviously suited to Miyajimas, the SPU and presumably, Koetsus. Not sure how that arm-rest works, though. The Ikeda arm looks to have a simple but effective clip like my PU7, but the Timestep one looks like a big black peg ! Your pic. without it suggests that it's removable, which is odd.

Presumably the arm only comes with detachable head-shell, Tom and I wonder what other mounts are available. I have to say that the price is pretty good for that performance and may reflect the fact that it's made in Europe rather than Japan. I assume that the wiring is two piece, as in SME, but wonder what kind of coupling connector is used.

Look forward to more investigative audio journalism, Tom; great stuff !

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The arm clip - yes it's like a large clothespeg and it works really well! It's weighty enough to keep the arm down when changing cartridges. It's the opposite of fiddly and works well with the aesthetic of the arm.

Yes both are the usual Ortofon/SME detachable 4-pin headshell/screw up collet. Not sure you'd want any alternative mounts, the only other removable headshell system with any widespread traction these days is the 'diamond' 4-pin layout EMT arrangement but since you can get EMT cartridges with an SME fitting nowadays you aren't really missing out. The connector on the base of both arms is a standard 5-pin connector (per SME/Linn/Ortofon/Jelco etc) - any standard arm cable will do as I mentioned I've been using an Audio Note AN-V silver litz arm cable that I've had for ages, using it on both arms. Both arms are internally silver-wired.