4Point-9 mount
This is a show and tell post, along with a bit of a micro-rant.
We've had a recent flurry of custom installations, with many involving free-standing arm pillars.
We're not fans of the current crop of free-standing pillars' weaknesses.
Our key objection is to the possibility of movement - progressive "creeping" of the pillar.
When these mounts are thrust on us, we do what we can to ensure/improve the integrity of the mount - specifically, maintaining a stable pivot to spindle distance.
Bear in mind that movements as small as .25mm matter, and minimizing creep as well as addressing uncertainty is the goal.
How frequently should you check it to ensure that the pod didn't "creep"? You're always wondering.
The best you can do with this architecture is to implement a Band-Aid: minimize creep and periodically verify.
Minimize
When possible, we'll machine a groove in the base of the pillar and install an o-ring to minimize slip. Higher mass pillars help.
Verify
The only way to address uncertainty is to periodically check. For this, a Feickert protractor is a quick 'n easy tool.
Kuzma 4Point-9 / TT Weights Pillar
Supatrac Blackbird Pillar
This pillar implements a Supatrac Blackbird Farpoint to a Garrard 401 - an existing design with a custom plinth having cutouts for free-standing pillars.
We implemented an o-ring on the base of the pillar, which combined with the brass pillar's mass (about 15 pounds), minimizes creep.
As with the above two mounts, we advised the customer to periodically check the pivot to spindle distance with the supplied tool.
Free-standing pillars have one key advantage if the above weakness can be addressed: setting up turntables with multiple tonearms is dramatically simplified by allowing you to temporarily move the left-rear tonearm to the traditional, right-rear location.
This provides much better access for working with your protractor and a USB microscope - the latter being nearly impossible to position for the left-rear mount.
We've developed a straight-forward solution to "pillar creep", and our Mk III chassis designs will implement this solution. The first chassis to employ this will be our soon to released Savoie turntable.
Stay tuned ...
Related Posts
Savoie Drive PrototypeShown here is the prototype assembly we rigged up for our upcoming Savoie drive system. The new drive implements a much more robust (and larger) motor. To prototype this, we had to house the drive electronics in an external case as shown in the photo. In the past few months, we began to field questions from
Read More5-pin DIN ConnectorThat, is the question … For years, we bought into the common knowledge that tonearms wired with a straight run from the cartridge clips to the connectors (RCA or XLR) are superior to arms with plug-in cables employing a 5-pin DIN connector. Then, we put the theory to the test. The ExperimentWe compared two 4Point, 11″
Read MoreCompleted AssemblyOK, so you accept the premise that cables break in over time by just playing your hi-fi, and that a burn-in device is an unnecessary indulgence. Fair enough. Have you taken into consideration whether the millivolt level voltage output by a moving coil cartridge will ever break in a tonearm and its interconnect … in your
Read MoreShockingIt’s that time of year, when we’re fielding questions about static build-up on turntables … well, non-Galibier turntables that is. On our Galibiers, static is a non-problem as you’ll see below, but with other turntables the solution may not be “built in”. We have 2 approaches to solving this. In this post, we addressed a possible work-around to
Read MoreNever miss a good story!
Subscribe to our newsletter to receive a copy of a setup report we created for a customer.
Subscribers also receive discounts on all accessories, including Audiodesk, Feickert and AnalogMagik.
This report is in 3 sections:
15 pages packed with general setup information - tricks you may not have seen before
Documentation of the customer's setup
A tool guide - how to specify a USB microscope and build your own azimuth gauge
Click the photo below, to subscribe.