DIY Schroeder Tonearm???

It's not easy to mill the wood and then glue the pieces together to make it even. Of course, anything is possible if you have access to precise machines. The hole should be as small as possible. If it were to be e.g. 3 mm, it would be 1.5 mm on each side, and this is not easy to do in the case of wood. For me, it was easier to drill, so I have never tried milling and gluing, so I can't help because I don't have experience.
 
And I have another set of questions, this time regarding the counter weight ant it’s isolation/ damping from the tonearm tube.

What material do you use for the counter weight. Copper or brass? Brass has a higher internal damping but lower specific weight. Copper is the other way round.

Somewhere I read that a silicone tube between the armature and the counter weight would work best. What do you use? Would a rather soft material work better than a more stiff material?

Looking forward to your answers.
Stephan
 
Not really designing a new arm. But I read a lot about resonance propagation and how different materials affect it. I even bought accelerometers and made some experiments.
What I’ve already done is change the design of my diy turntable platter bearing. Results are audible.

Next in line we’re different arm board designs. Also audible quite easily.

So I believe that there is a lot of potential for improvements in my Schröder Clone keeping in mind that you need to get rid of most of the resonances in the arm wand plus counter weight as very little of the resonances make their way through the bearing. That’s were I’m coming from and why I’m asking these questions.
 
diyAudio Senior Member
Joined 2002
Hi,

In general always try to pick a material that has a lower impedance than the one that's actually vibrating or is a source of vibration..
By doing so the vibrations will be drained and will see a higher impedance to return to the source.
Just like electronic impedance vibrations too seek the lowest path of resistance.

Make sure you have a well defined path for the vibrations to sink in to. It's analogous to electronical "earthing". You need one but only one.
Same goes for coupling points such as a cartridge to a shell. One point is enough and if it does not provide sufficient rigidity use an uneven number.
Make sure at least one point has higher torquing force but make sure the others won't resonate.

The are several ways to skin a cat but mostly it's just all common sense really.

Wishing you the best of luck with your project, I'll be abroad for a couple of months but if I can help do not hesitate to ring my bell.

Cheers, ;)
 
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In a way that’s common knowledge.

Lets talk about the direction that the resonances travel in a simplified way in the Schröder form their main sourcre: the cartridge.

cartirdge —> Headshell plate (Aluminium)—> headshell plate screw (steel) —> wooden arm tube (Mahagonay for example)—> alloy tube with bearing —> decoupling element (Silicone or other material with currently unknown specification) —> counter weight (copper or brass or …)

So in order to prevent resonances to be reflected back at the rear end of he tonearm, which happens to be the counterweight, we probably have to focus on the aluminium, decoupling element and counterweight
Would it be ideal for the materials used in that path to have lower impedances than the one before it? And what would these materials be?
 
Hi,

I am not a specialist at all but I DIY few TAs.

Headshell screws: why steel and not aluminium since head shell is already aluminium?
Arm tube: Mahogany wood: I also used it but in the centre of it I inserted and fixed an aluminum tube, inside runs the wires.
Counter weight: the less resonant is leads, as Mr. Morsiani was used in his TAs. Copper or a kind of it also I would use.

Silicone in the tA? I have some doubt, but never know.

Rgds

Adelmo
 
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HI,

Perhaps a panseholz bush. I have used a panzerholz spacer between the Headshell and the cart and I was happy with it.

I never isolated the TA s tube and counter weight, most probably I am wrong, however I did not test the difference between with and without it. I believe that changing too many kind of materials in the TA is not so positive.

Some time ago I read that the best isolation system for the cart would be to put 3 tiny spikes between the cart and the head shell. May be some time I may try it.

If I am not wrong. Audiomod use some leads in their TA?

Best rgds

Adelmo
 
cartirdge —> Headshell plate (Aluminium)—> headshell plate screw (steel) —> wooden arm tube (Mahagonay for example)—> alloy tube with bearing —> decoupling element (Silicone or other material with currently unknown specification) —> counter weight (copper or brass or …)
Mine is............... cartridge with aluminium screws- head shell plate ( Titanium ) - head shell plate screw ( Titanium ) Headshell ( aluminium ) Rosewood arm wand- aluminium bearing section- Brass counterweight isolated by silicone tube from the arm.
The tone arm wire runs inside a fine PTFE tube which in turn runs inside a fine brass tube inside the wand.

The wand was soaked in oils for quite a time to help towards deadening any resonance inherent in the wood.

The element at the top of the suspension thread that contains the adjustment grub screw is held in place by an O-ring with a strong interference fit in the hope that that too adds some damping to the arm.

IMG_2657.jpeg
 
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@deadhead very nice build!!!

Did you experiment with the headshell plate and screw? What was the reason you ended up with a titanium screw and not an aluminium or steel one?

"Brass counterweight isolated by silicone tube" - currently I use a copper counterweight. My first test will be a counterweight made of brass. And I want to try out different silicone and Polyurethane tubes of different shore levels.
 
I did not experiment with the head shell plate and screw as I know I wanted Titanium from the start. ...rigid ,lightweight and non-magnetic . The entire arm build is non-,magnetic ...all fixings are either titanium or brass .

I chose food grade silicon tubing for its softness....I wanted as much damping as possible and thought that the greater the Shore value the less the damping factor.
 
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