AXPONA 2014

Thales' New Easy Tone Arm Makes North American Debut at AXPONA

Michael Fremer  |  Apr 27, 2014

Switzerland-based Thales recently introduced "Easy", a new moderately-priced tangential pivoting tone arm, that importer AAudio Imports introduced at AXPONA. The new arm costing $5800 has an effective length of 220mm and can handle cartridges weighing between 5g and 20g.

The pillar incorporates a 5 pin DIN connector, making mounting, as the name says, easy.

Though bearings have been redesigned and the importer says the issues I encountered with the Thales Simplicity arm reviewed in Stereophile last year have been eliminated.

We hope to get a review sample later this year.

COMMENTS
detroitvinylrob's picture
Submitted by detroitvinylrob on Wed, 2014-04-30 10:34

Is tracking error really an issue with modern stylus designs?

All of my favorite sounding/handling tonearms are of a single point pivoted design.

Resonant issues, especially over time would concern me with the Easy's control arm and pivot point mechanism approach. One has to wonder if perhaps what you trade for what you get (zero tracking error vs resonance or chatter issues) is of greater value.

A Swiss watchmakers solution likely would have "jewelled" the bearings and employed capstones (father was a watchmaker), but not at this pricepoint.

Happy Listening!

Rudy's picture
Submitted by Rudy on Thu, 2014-05-01 14:06

@detroitvinylrob Alignment is even more critical in this era of "line contact" styli, whether it's MicroRidge, MicroLine, Shibata, Van den Hul, you name it. Traditional pivoted arms are usually only in perfect alignment at two points on the record, and are off by a degree or two elsewhere.  I found that it was hyper-critical with the Shibata stylus on my cartridge, to the point of using a USB microscope to make adjustments.  Even my trusty old Shure V15VMR from the early 80s came with its own alignment jig so the alignment would be spot-on.  Elliptical and conical are less fussy, but in my experience they are too "thick" to properly track high-frequency grooves.  The Shibata, as one example, was originally designed to properly track a 38,000 Hz carrier signal for CD-4 quad LPs,  and it was only possible to its narrow profile, and having it correctly aligned.

 

Rudy's picture
Submitted by Rudy on Thu, 2014-05-01 14:07

I guess we should be thankful this is not a reborn Garrard Zero-100!  :D

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