Audiomods V Tonearm vs. Transfi Terminator T3Pro
Hi Guys,
My first post here aside from the welcoming welcomes.
So pondering possibilities as I divest from my big VPI belt drive beast to free up funds and leaning towards going with an SL1200 project. As I read up here and elsewhere on SL1200 mods my thinking is that if I choose this route I will jump right in with bearing replacement(Mike New or Funk), power supply upgrade(probably KAB), feet(Isonoe or Star Sound Audiopoints), mat(too damn many options!) and tonearm replacement. After reading many positives of the similarly priced Audiomods V Tonearm & Transfi Terminator T3Pro I was wondering if anyone has done any comparative listening between them?
A few other points that might be worth mentioning:
- I own a number of 45rpm and other heavyweight reissue LPs. In my system, visitors & I clearly hear benefits of easily repeatable VTA which I typically adjust by having 3 numerical preferred settings for 200g, 180g and conventional LPs, and occasionally adjusting by ear from there. My current tonearm allows for on-the-fly adjustment which I don't think is really needed as long as it can easily be set before lowering the arm.
- Current cartridge is van den hul Colibri XGP which is very light at under 6g. If the tonearm is a good match, terrific, but selling the Colibri and trying something else might be fun. I am a bit surprised that many here seem to prefer arms with easily changeable headshells and rotating a stable of cartridges. My approach has always been towards eliminating the connection points of removable headshells makes sense and pooling my resources towards one best all-around cart at whatever budget. I don't have too many mono LPs, so no mono cart is needed.
- Current Aqvox phono stage has tons of flexibility in terms of gain options and impedance matching, so no issues there. One concern is that the inputs are balanced XLR only. My Aqvox cable has RCAs at the turntable end and XLRs to the phono stage. Any tonearm with "continuous run of wire from cart to plugs" would need to be wired with XLRs if that's an option or would require RCA/XLR adapters which potentially add EMI/RFI. This point argues in favor of the Transfi unless I am missing something.
So at this point I'm thinking one of these arms would be a better fit for me than other contenders, mainly Jelco or SME309. I admit some concern about the setup and user-friendliness of the Transfi, as a friend who owns one seems to have issues with it on many occasions when I've wanted to listen. Overall he is happy with it, but my perception on a small number of data points is that his has been finicky even after initial setup. OTOH, its design seems a bit of genius and great value. I am not a technical savant, but having lived with many valve(us Yanks call them "tube") amps and vintage electrostatics I am a proven glutton for punishment.
Any advice on which arm might make a better choice for me? Thanks in advance.
Audiomods V Tonearm vs. Transfi Terminator T3Pro
Here is the original arm that the transfi has taken its ideas from:
http://n4rp.com/airbearingarm.html
Originally developed by Poul Ladegaard.
Audiomods V Tonearm vs. Transfi Terminator T3Pro
EMI/RFI issues likely to be associated with the use of valve equipment are in another league of probability compared to the issues likely (or unlikely) to occur with RCA/BBC adaptors. In any case, as I wrote before, it's easy enough to fit BNC connectors instead of RCAs - I'm surprised you don't know this.
Air bearing arms are far from the panacea that some manufacturers would have you believe. They can be done well, but at a cost and even then they still struggle to overcome the problems they introduce.
I've seen and heard the Transfi arm a number of times and on three different turntables. In every case it was very temperamental and keen on leaving the groove at the slightest opportunity.