It seems that some loss is allowed in the coupling/joint in the headshell so that not all the cartridge energy is directed into the tonearm ... there are a few other solutions around that work on that principle.
For me it makes SPU playback a bit 'cleaner' and more focused/detailed all round (not just around the end grooves), without losing that wonderful SPU body, the only reason I don't have it in at the moment is that it sits the stylus body a little low relative to the headshell connector than it does on a normal SPU, so you end up with a more tail-up angle on the tonearm, which can be dialled out if you only have one cartridge, but I have quite a few that go on this arm and I try to get them all at the same height to minimise the re-setup required when changing headshells. I have a 4mm ebony spacer on the way from Speedy Steve to mitigate this and when it arrives I'll put it back in the system again.
The only down side from my point of view is that it feels quite fragile compared to a normal SPU headshell and needs careful handling.
I don't see why the compliance should change? Compliance is all about mass and motion in the groove. All my my cartridges are low compliance and all my tonearms are pretty heavy.
On the protractor question, at rest the springs centre it and it behaves like a normal headshell, in any case the SPU version has identical 52mm headshell connector to stylus tip dimensions as standard SPU, so goes straight on any arm that's already correct for SPU geometry.
Bakoon 13r Denon DP80 Stax UA-70 Shure Ultra 500 in a Martin Bastin body with jico stylus, project ds2 digital Rullit aero 8 field coils in tqwt speakers
Office system, DIY CSS fullrange speakers with aurum cantus G2 ribbons yulong dac Sony STR6055 receiver Jvc QL-A51 direct drive turntable, Leema sub. JVC Z4S cart is in the house
Garage system another Sony receiver, cassette deck
System components are subject to change without warning and at the discretion of the owner.
How about this? https://welltemperedlab.files.wordpr...5/dsc04240.jpg 16” anyone? I do like Well Tempered tables. The Royal is a wonderful deck, but price is just a bit north of what I could or would ever put into a deck.
Holbo TT-Nag 110-Croft phono/Innuos Zen MK2/LinnenberG Telemann DAC-Preamp/LinnenberG Allegro monoblocs/Duevel Venus/LinnenberG Maestro SE-Senn. 660S DH Labs cabling
Croft Series 7 amps, WLM La Scala, Naim Uniti1, Naim Nait XS3, Naim ND5XS2, Guru Junior
Location: Dagenham Essex
Posts: 11,215
I'm Allen.