To install the arm, which, unlike the two cartridges with their names taken from the opera world, has quite prosaically been christened TRA 9 - this shortcut most likely standing for Transrotor Arm with a length of nine inches - the turntable specialists offer two mount types: a circular one with a bolt circle of 55 millimeters diameter and a longitudinally shaped one, which allows mounting on surfaces prepared with oblong holes for arms of the already aforementioned British manufacturer. No matter which of the two tonearm mounts is chosen: In the hole for the tonearm shaft there is a slotted plastic sleeve that is pressed against the arm with two Allen screws. This way there is, as Jochen Räke explains, on the one hand a disruption of resonances and on the other hand a prevention of the arm shaft being scratched during height adjustment. Anyone who changes pickups frequently will be quite familiar with this phenomenon: In the case of arm mounts without a sleeve, the tightened screws leave imprints in the arm shaft, making it difficult to fix the arm slightly higher or lower. The screw then seeks its way back into the previously created recess. This, though, cannot happen with the TRA 9.
To execute the height adjustment, Transrotor supplies a parallelogram made of perspex as well as two threaded rods which are screwed into the corresponding threaded bushes in the base plate, which also carries the lift and the arm rest. By means of the two rods the arm can be moved up or down very sensitively. However, the two rods should be rotated as equally as possible and the clamping screws of the plastic sleeve should not be loosened too much, so that the arm avoids tilting. This may sound complicated, but it will get easy to perform after one having installed the third cartridge.
During the quiet days around the end of last year Jochen Räke wired one of the prototypes and started the first practical tests. In the process he noticed that the low-frequent resonance of the arm appeared to be very pronounced. His remedy against it was to increase the mass of the counterweight, in order to bring it closer to the pivot point. When redesigning the arm, he also made sure that a substantial portion of the mass was located below the bearing point of the arm. However, a higher mass is not compatible with cartridges of very low weight. Therefore two chrome-plated brass weights are now placed under the black aluminum block. These can easily be exchanged for lighter or even heavier ones if necessary. The tonearm/cartridge combinations I tried out, however, didn't show any noticeable low-frequent resonances.
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