Tonearm Technology

Vertere’s philosophy is simple and straightforward. Any hi-fi system is only as good as its weakest link. By definition, every component of the system can only degrade the signal. The issue is how? And by how much?

So, the aim is always to identify the weakest link, the component that’s causing the most degradation. When any component is seriously compromising the performance of system, it limits progress in every way.

If you fail to address the weakest link first, you can spend any amount of time and money on the other parts of the system, but end up with no real improvement!

The correct route, to make real progress, is to address the weakest links successively. Then every step will result in ever-improving performance and satisfaction. This paves your way out of a maze, rather than moving into one.

In vinyl record playing systems, once you have addressed the connecting cables, there’s usually no doubt which component is in fact the next weakest link. It is the tonearm. There are good reasons for this, because in some ways, the tonearm presents the biggest design challenge of any hi-fi component.

What should the tonearm do?

A tonearm has to support the cartridge while accommodating the record. To support the cartridge effectively, the tonearm must be rigid. To accommodate the record, however, it requires freedom of movement.

Specifically, the tonearm has to hold the cartridge perfectly still in relation to the centre line or mean position of the groove to allow the stylus to extract the information precisely. At the same time, ideally, the tonearm has to be completely free to move up and down and side-ways in order to keep to that crucial mean position of the groove. 

These two requirements are not exactly opposing, but there are many complexities that demand innovative design approaches and faultless engineering, if state-of-the-art performance is to be achieved.