Ebony in HiFi Audio?

[MAB]

One morph of the Clearaudio "Satisfy" tonearm has (had) an ebony arm wand.
That version was bundled with the Marantz TT-15S1 turntable, as well as a Clearaudio MM cartridge ("Virtuoso") with an ebony body.



Garrard famously used Afrormosia wood (whatever that is?) for the arm on their rather clunky LAB-80 record player. I had a couple of these over the years and couldn't really understand their popularity in certain circles.
View attachment 402601

source: pg 3 of https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Audio/Archive-Audio/60s/Audio-1966-11.pdf

I have a Grace tonearm made of wood:

It doesn't solve reproduction problems, but looks great.

Grado made wooden arms too, so did a few others.
Not often made from ebony, but lots of things allegedly made from ebony are actually ebonized wood from different species.

Reed has some over the top arms in a range of materials including wood.

Tonearms - Reed tonearms

Reed 1X tonearm, Reed 5T tonearm, Reed 2G tonearm, Reed 3P tonearm

www.reed.lt

I wonder if the different available materials have any audible impact outside of altering the tonearm's effective mass.

Some time ago there was a rash of people upgrading Denon 103 series. Ebony bodies were one of the many exotic wood options. Each material lifted a slightly different veil. There was a nude option that lifted all veils I think...

 

[antcollinet]

Wow!

+1

 

[MoreWatts]

The body of a few benz cartridges are ebony, notably the LP, LPS and Ebony models.

The LP has 'aged ebony.' Some pics:

 

[Timcognito]

Ebony is one of the most awful materials to work with. It dulls saw blades really quickly. It is saturated with oil, and has small pores, so it is very difficult to glue.

I make wooden ship models, and I was able to obtain some ebony. I thought I would make the black parts of my ship out of ebony, and it was almost impossible to shape it and then glue it on. In the end, black stained cherry gives the same look.

View attachment 402596

Try this next time makes wood very black.

Ebonizing Wood with Steel Wool and Vinegar - FineWoodworking

This steel wood and vinegar method for ebonizing wood is appropriate whether you want a dark, graphic look or tones of gray, blue, and purple.

www.finewoodworking.com

Nice Ship!

 

[mhardy6647]

I have a Grace tonearm made of wood:
View attachment 402611
It doesn't solve reproduction problems, but looks great.

Grado made wooden arms too, so did a few others.
Not often made from ebony, but lots of things allegedly made from ebony are actually ebonized wood from different species.

Reed has some over the top arms in a range of materials including wood.

Tonearms - Reed tonearms

Reed 1X tonearm, Reed 5T tonearm, Reed 2G tonearm, Reed 3P tonearm

www.reed.lt

I wonder if the different available materials have any audible impact outside of altering the tonearm's effective mass.

Some time ago there was a rash of people upgrading Denon 103 series. Ebony bodies were one of the many exotic wood options. Each material lifted a slightly different veil. There was a nude option that lifted all veils I think...

There have been numerous wooden arms over the years; the specific topic of this thread is ebony, though.

Had a couple of the slightly odd but once common (in radio station studios) MicroTrak 303 arms for a little while, some years back. The two I had were pretty scroungy (rode hard and put away wet, as it is said).

 

[Karmacoma]

My father has an exotic pair of loudspeakers from an indie company, full Ebony, 180 pounds (about 80kgs) each, they feel really really inert.

 

[Timmy]

My father has an exotic pair of loudspeakers from an indie company, full Ebony, 180 pounds (about 80kgs) each, they feel really really inert.

Would just love to have more info on that!

 

[MAB]

There have been numerous wooden arms over the years; the specific topic of this thread is ebony, though.

Indeed. And OP's question is still unanswered. When I think about it, it surprises me that ebony isn't prevalent in high end gear. It is rare and even small quantities can impart a sense of exclusivity. It was used for piano keys, so it evokes a sense of musicality by association to great performances that use pianos. It's expensive. It is denser than most wood (better bass) and difficult to work with (allows pictures of skilled craftsmen in marketing material).

 

[Timmy]

Glancing at all those tone arms ... What about a stylus made from Ebony?

 

[Karmacoma]

Would just love to have more info on that!

They date back from the end of the 90's top notch drivers, everything oversized, crazy build, awesome sound, can't find any pic on the net of this specific model. Brand was Selac, from the name of the maker, an ex-french submarine ''golden ear'' engineer (so a real one) who went to work for Cabasse after that before lauching his own high end company, building tube amps and turntables as well, his moto was about making neutral speakers.
Here's two of his designs from a lower range though:

My fathers speakers have a titanium tweeter a bowled shaped kevlar medium and kevlar boomer, they play full range.

 

[Timmy]

My fathers speakers have a titanium tweeter a bowled shaped kevlar medium and kevlar boomer, they play full range.

So the front panel of that speaker is supposed to be solid Ebony?! That would be hard to believe.

 

[Karmacoma]

So the front panel of that speaker is supposed to be solid Ebony?! That would be hard to believe.

I don't know, these aren't the speakers i'm talking about, just two random designs of the brand i found on the net to illustrate the company's work

 

[MattHooper]

The body of a few benz cartridges are ebony, notably the LP, LPS and Ebony models.

Yup. I use the Benz EbonyL cartridge.
I don’t ascribe anything to the Ebony itself, but boy do I get great sound.

 

[MattHooper]

The LP has 'aged ebony.' Some pics:

View attachment 402623

View attachment 402624

Oh there, it is, top one is the cartridge I use.
My main gripe is that the stylus is very hard to see when doing finicky aligning.

 

[Timmy]

So there’s very little evidence (if any) for Ebony being used as an acoustically factor, having at least some influence to any sonic process connected to HiFi gear. Instead it is often used for non-audio reasons, such as looks or »status«.

I wonder if there are any examples for Ebony especially destined to haptical approach. Like for knobs, switches and so on.

 

[oratory1990]

I wonder if there are any examples for Ebony especially destined to haptical approach. Like for knobs, switches and so on.

fretboards