Turntables, Arms & Cartridges

Lab Report
As supplied, the C-Dur had a swifter 4-5 sec start-up time but a similar, and slightly slow (–0.22%), absolute speed as witnessed in the C-Sharp model. In practice this will be rather less impactful than the excellent pitch stability enjoyed by this deck – a peak-wtd wow of just 0.02% and flutter of 0.04% puts the C-Dur in some exalted company. This result is especially fine bearing in mind the round-section drive belt is glued rather than continuous... The DIN-B wtd –69.5dB through-bearing rumble improves by about 2dB through-the-groove courtesy of the felt mat, but spectral analysis of the bearing reveals specific noise/resonances between 70-90Hz – again, similar was seen on the C-Sharp and E-Flat turntables from the EAT range.

The partnering C-Note tonearm has a combination Cardan (vertical) and stabilising uni-pivot (horizontal) bearing, which offers good stability and low friction (<10mg) in both planes. This established arm features an alloy bearing housing, tapered carbon-fibre tube and bonded alloy headshell, the latter lifting the overall effective mass to a medium-high 15g, supporting the use of low compliance MCs with ‘heavyweight’ mounting hardware. The low-slung thread-and-weight bias mechanism is a nice feature, improving the arm’s stability. The carbon tube’s main bending mode is deferred to an impressively high 200Hz [see Graph 2] with other twisting, bending or harmonic modes at 280Hz and 420Hz, managed by the tube’s internal damping (carbon tubes can exhibit high-Q resonances if undamped). The sharp but short-lived peak at 1.1kHz, and likely harmonic at 2.2kHz, are both linked to the alloy headshell/fingerlift but both will be modified once a cartridge is bolted into position.

Wow and flutter re. 3150Hz tone at 5cm/sec (plotted ±150Hz, 5Hz per minor division)

Cumulative resonant decay spectrum for the 10in C-Note tonearm (100Hz-10kHz over 40msec) showing short-lived modes at mid/high frequencies