Refresh Me on S Tonearm vs. a Straight Arm

[Eric Natural]

I'm seeing new tables available with S shaped tonearms again and for some reason, I thought that was no longer a thing.
What are the mechanical/engineered/audio advantages(if any) of the two shapes vs the other ?
Peace

 

[DVDdoug]

I'm not sure but geometrically/mechanically the arc across the record only depends on the distance between the pivot and the stylus and it doesn't matter how simple the or crazy the shape of the arc.

 

[kklarqvist]

S shaped tone-arm will bias the skew for a give pivot to hub differently than a straight arm. It will add mass and make the arm less stiff (for the same construction the tone arm will have lower freq resonant modes (which is probably bad). If you need to bias the skew, an S-shaped, might be a better compromise than twisting the cartridge on the head shel,l or maybe not.

 

[MaxwellsEq]

It's complicated. All tonearm design is a compromise.

I can highly recommend reading any tonearm, cartridge and hardshell posts on ASR by @Frank Dernie

 

[Golf]

I believe that it is mostly aesthetical reasons, what speaks for an s-shaped arm. Head shell and cartridge can be placed »in line«, pleasing the eye

 

[Hiten]

I think...
if designed correctly the S shaped tone arm has equally distributed weight in Horizontal plane. Putting equal pressure on tonearm bearings. Torsional vibrations along with the axis of arm tube may be less or different. But S shape tonearm probably has more weight.
The Classic J Shape SME tonearm has rider weight on right side; if seen from front to counter headshell weight which is on left side of the axis of the tube. SME does not have horizontal bearing in parallel plane to the cartridge offset angle.
But all these have minor effect to the response. And each design needs to be evaluated individually.

 

[Eric Natural]

Thx for reinforcing a couple of my foggy memories about arms fellas : either design is sorta compromised but both work fine(obvs)

Linear tracking I believe can be perfect but wouldn't the sync of revolutions vs needle placement needs to be exact or have the tendency to tear the vinyl walls if slightly out of sync ? I don't want that
Peace

 

[MaxwellsEq]

Linear tracking I believe can be perfect

In terms of tracking error, yes, but unlike a pivoted arm, the mass seen by the cartridge is not broadly similar vertically and horizontally.

 

[Golf]

Just imagine the beautiful s-shaped tone arm of Denon’s DP-3000NE as a straight one instead. Which one would you like more?

 

[Down South]

What is worth talking about is fixed / detachable headshell. Also remember that commercial people think about production cost all the time, this applies to almost every aspect of audio equipment.

A straight arm, fixed h/shell is a lot cheaper to manufacture than an S shape and detachable h/shell. Any resonance in a fixed h/shell arm is transferred directly into the cartridge.

All parts of a detachable h/shell must be engineered precisely and this costs. Blutak has been used for ages in many wrinkles in audio, not least a thin film used at the interface of h/shell and arm terminating completely any resonance in the arm and then there's the tonearm wiring?

What is happening to the wiring inside the arm tube itself. What dielectric is used? Is it one piece to the phono stage? There is no more delicate wiring used in an audio system and with the possibility to interfere/dampen the information carried.