Straight or S-Shape?

[Clive197]

Having just installed a Jelco TK-850S tonearm, my son asked me, what is the difference between a straight and a S shaped tonearm. I’m embarrassed to say that other than aesthetics I didn’t know. Have any of you guys got an answer?

[Lawrence001]

Is it not the angle the arm takes relative to the groove, or alternatively like having the pivot point of the arm at a different location?

Sent from my POT-LX1 using Tapatalk

[struth]

not much as long as we discount those dj short arms. they will both have same issues even if both made well...

[Jazid]

An L or S shaped armwand allows a straight SME fit headshell to be used [emoji106] Much easier to play with. Other than that aesthetics, balance in some arms, and mass/rigidity will vary. Fidelity Research amongst others made the same models with straight and S shaped armwand, the latter being the higher mass variants for people preferring low compliance cartridges.

Sent from my BLA-L09 using Tapatalk

[Ammonite Audio]

An S-shaped arm does allow the designer to match headshell offset angle with the vertical bearing angle, while still having something that is usable and fits on any turntable. Matching these angles is, in my opinion, a Good Thing although not the ultimate criterion determining whether an arm actually sounds good.

[Clive197]

Thanks for that Hugo, makes perfect sense.

[Barry]

An S-shaped arm does allow the designer to match headshell offset angle with the vertical bearing angle, while still having something that is usable and fits on any turntable. Matching these angles is, in my opinion, a Good Thing although not the ultimate criterion determining whether an arm actually sounds good.

You can do the same if you crank both the headshell and the vertical bearing with respect to the arm tube

[Ammonite Audio]

You can do the same if you crank both the headshell and the vertical bearing with respect to the arm tube

Of course you can, and it’s amazing how few arm designers do this, but to my eyes an S shaped arm is still a more visually appealing and elegant thing, particularly if we are talking about removable headshells with standard collet-stylus distance.

[Barry]

Of course you can, and it’s amazing how few arm designers do this, but to my eyes an S shaped arm is still a more visually appealing and elegant thing, particularly if we are talking about removable headshells with standard collet-stylus distance.

The arms that come to mind are those made by Garrard (the TP-12 and -14, as well as those fitted to the SP25 and later TTs).

In principle one could use a J-shaped arm if the vertical bearing was arranged to be at right angles to a line running through headshell/collet axis. That way the arm would not 'roll' in a counter-clockwise direction as the cartridge rides a record warp. But I don't know of any arm designed like that.

[walpurgis]

Not very important, but it crossed my mind that 'S' shaped unipivot arms are pretty thin on the ground. In fact I can only think of the Transcriptors and Morch.