THOMAS SCHICK TONEARMS

Introduction & Design Philosophy

 

Vinyl playback is still popular worldwide despite the fact that there are numerous digital formats claiming to be the ultimate source. I do not want to research the reasons for this, because if you are reading this, you probably already enjoy vinyl records.

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For high quality analogue playback, record players from the 1960’s and even older are still very popular. As for cartridges, the choice is often a classic Ortofon SPU. Its design dates even back to the late 1940’s. 

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Two major perspectives on sonic reproduction seem to have surfaced over time :

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1. First, there is the “romantic, sweet and pleasant” sound lover. This listener values most tonal colors, the reproduction of a musical event, nothing which disturbs this experience reproduced and replayed is allowed.

2. The other listener is the detail lover who wants to hear all the details, even if the overall sound is missing the context it originally had. ​

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• Both of these perspectives have advantages and disadvantages when considering recorded material reproduction.

• “Sweet sound” is often perceived as dull and boring, whereas the detailed sound often comes along with bright, unnatural, even annoying sonics, but not always, or all the time.

• A customer summed it up like this: 'If I listen to xy, I need an Aspirin after 20 minutes.'

 

 

Best of both Worlds

 

How do I combine these two perspectives and get the most natural AND detailed sound?

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To keep the high level of information and details, you have to start at my initial idea. How would I design a precise and sonically accurate tonearm for use with a very wide range of cartridges ? 

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• My chosen bearings , along with a lot of other careful design decisions, will reveal sonic musicality

• The design appears simple, yet this consists of more than 50 parts.

• Still it aims to maintain an elegant appearance uncluttered by knobs.

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The Situation

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A lot of audiophiles from all over the world fancy the vintage 12 inch arms from makers like Ortofon and SME. They are capable of producing a nice sound, but their ability to deliver details is limited.

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• The condition of the arms is mostly bad ... just think of their 40 years of operation.

• Even if, and when, these arms are in the best of condition, the old bearings leave much to be desired. Forty years ago the bearing quality was much worse than today.

• Even if we imagine the rest of the tonearm to be mechanically absolutely rigid, the bearings remain the limiting factor.

• If the tonearm is therefore not stable, all the punch of the music is lost in the movements of the bearing.

• The needle is supposed to work as generator, creating electrical signals from the movement of the needle.

• If the arm assembly is able to move against that, this is hardly beneficial.

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Here also lies a problem with most uni-pivot-designs : they are very sensitive to "rumble"

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• To work against that, damping is often applied which even brings in more negative influences rather than a cure.

• Uni-pivot tonearms that drown their moving parts in silicone oil are not rigid, they are sticky, unable to react to subtle details.

• Also, a knife bearing is loose by design. Imagine a knife that is in use for 40 years, the only thing cuttable would be hot butter.

• The edge of the knife is a scratchy, uneven surface compared to the dimensions of the information stored in a LP groove.

 

 

The assembly holding the knife bearing of a vintage SME arm

 

shown below