The only
thing better would be no tone arm at all.
The ideal
record-playing system, theoretically, would be simply this; A cartridge suspended from an infinitely
rigid nothing, which would take some of the cartridge's weight off the stylus,
leaving the optimum tracking pressure; obviously create and transmit no
resonance of its own; and leave the
stylus in proper position against both sides of the record groove, wherever
that groove might lead (up and down on a warped disc, back and forth on an
imperfectly centered one) without a heavy counterweight to resist first and
overcompensate an instant later.other tone arms have achieved proper vertical
tracking force - period.
Infinity
introduces the closest approach to the entire ideal.
The first
tone arm designed by Infinity is an eceptionally rigid leverwhich is extremely
low in mass especially toward the stylus end, where the conventional head shell
has been eliminated; impeded at the point where the arm's diameter changes,
creating a transmission line that effectively breaks up any incipient
resonance; and minimal in arm weight and counterbalance weight.
This
advanced audio component will improve the operating specifications of any
modern cartridge, and reveal inner voicings and an openness you have never
heard before in your favorite recordings.
We call this
slender wand The Black Widow. And we eagerly invite you to compare it with
other tone-arms. The Black Widow will eat them
alive,
A phonograph
record is not a precision instrument. So the Infinity Black Widow has to be.
Records
aren't perfectly flat or perfectly centred. But no other manufacturer of tone
arms has fully dealt with that fact. So what happens? With an ordinary tone
arm, every time a warp in a disc forces the stylus up, the combined mass of arm
plus head shell plus correspondingly heavy counterweight creates a distorting
press-and-release, press-and-release action of the stylus.
And during
every revolution of the disc, with the "center" hole and/or grooves
actually off-center, that inertial mass forces the stylus against one side of
the groove and then the other.
These forces
can cause mistracking and distortion, as well as degrading the crosstalk and
spoiling the accuracy of the stereo image.
Moder
lightweight high-compliance cartridges could never perform up to their
potential and their manufacturers promises until somebody removed the inertial
stubborness and excess weight from a tone arm.
Our tone arm
won't add tones to those already on your record.
As a
turntable rotates, and as the stylus in the cartridge on the tone arm is
excited to reproduce an array of frequencies, most tone arms feel an
overwhelming urge to add vibration and resonances of their own. Infinity has at last eliminated that source
of distortion.
Where the
circumference of our Black Widow Tone-Arm changes, a transmission-line effect
is created; that is, resonances are neither passed along nor reflected back to
the stylus, but instead are attenuated at the barrier. Perhaps all tone arms should be designed the
way ours is. But only ours is.
Specifications
The Infinity
"Black Widow" tone Arm is an ultra-light-weight low-inertia
high-tracking jointed-pipe dasmped-knife-edge fulcrum system.
Cartridge
Weight: 4 to 8,5 grams
Stylus Force
Adjustment: ±2 gm per revolution of
single-weight vernier. (90-degree rotation adds or subtracts1/2 gm of vertical
tracking force.
Inside Force
Cancellation (Anti-skating): Fine spring
adjustment, calibrated for co-ordination with stylus pressure.
Bearing
Sensitivity at Stylus Point: vertical
bearing (knife edge): 0,005 gm.
Lateral
bearing (fine miniature bal) bearing 0,01 gm
Sliding Base
Adjustment: ±10 mm (quick slideset and
lock type)
Low
Capacitance Output Cord: 50 pF per 1,5 m
Effective
mass of arm: 3 gm
