Turntables, Arms & Cartridges

Thiele’s use of a short belt to close-couple the AC motor to the sub-platter confers good control – the peak-wtd wow is just 0.03% [see Graph 1, below] – but the technique brings with it the potential for transmitted noise. In practice Thiele has selected a motor that’s both quiet and possessed of limited torque, so the start-up time is around 5 seconds. This, and the fixing of the motor to a separate layer within the chassis superstructure, does nothing to compromise the low –69.7dB noise (DIN-B wtd, re. 5cm/sec) achieved by the main bearing. The latter – a hardened steel shaft running in bronze bushes and with a ceramic ball/Delrin thrust pad – is fixed to another layer within the chassis. Transmission of mechanical noise up through the polymer inner platter is very well damped, the TT01 achieving a state-of-the-art –74.9dB through-groove noise (this increases to –73.1dB if the hard foam ‘mat’ is used on the platter). Absolute speed is adjustable via two trimpots, realising a mere –0.06% error in this example.

The partnering TA01 tonearm is superbly engineered. What Thiele describes as a ‘double wall’ tube is, I assume, alloy with a carbon-fibre coating (as employed by Pro-Ject) and further damped here with an internal gel. The alloy headshell and rear counterweight stub include ebony wood as a further damping component, the effect realised in the controlled behaviour seen on the CSD waterfall [Graph 2] where a primary 125Hz beam mode is joined by harmonics/twisting resonances at 215Hz and 335Hz, and a discrete mode at 655Hz. The TA01’s 14g effective mass is suited to medium-compliance pick-ups while the combined hinge/gimbal bearing(s) maintain a very low <10mg friction in both planes. PM