Life goes round in circles and the world is getting smaller and smaller. About 4 years ago I got in touch with a gentlemen asking about his DIY air bearing arm. I was fascinated with the arm as I always wanted to try air bearing and he had made one at a very affordable price. During this time I was already experimenting on front horns but not LENCO’s ! researching on air bearing arms I stumbled upon the Air Tech MG-1 and at the same time the LENCO and before you know it I was glued on DA THREAD on Audigon. For whatever reason I bought the Air Tech MG-1 – may because it looked like an Air tangent.
I carried on talking to this gentlemen and he showed me what he was up to – I was amazed on the amount of DIY he was up to, he was also amazed with my horns, but he knew that it was a difficult issue on the WAF. Nevertheless we kept in touch and wrote to each other every few months. The passion for analogue retrieval was the same. It was when I joined Lenco Lovers I discovered this same gentlemen experimenting with Lenco’s, he kindly sent me his first prototype air bearing arm, it arrived with excitement and I mounted the arm immediately to compare with my MG-1. We went on the phone talking for over an hour discussing various attributes of each arm and how improvements could be made. In May 2009 I finally visited this gentlemen
http://www.lencoheaven.net/forum/index.php?topic=936.0 – he is of course Vic of TransFi-Audio and his arm is the Terminator !
What I was listening at his place was the Terminator T3Pro, I was stunned how far he further developed his arm, looking at the 3 workshops he had and the R&D he had been doing since our discussion was stunning. He is a man obsessed in getting perfection. He promised that he will send out the T3Pro once it was in production, and now here it is !
The noticeable differences are the build quality has improved, but of course I am comparing with a prototype. The then wooden block which was used to support the manifolds and connect the rest of the parts to the arm is now a machined solid block of aluminum. The VTA on the fly is now incorporated as both felt the previous design was a bit cumbersome and this VTA it is more refine than the MG1 and it is a very nice touch. I am not a fan of the digital caliper on the MG-1, it looks cool, but to be honest, the marks on the T3pro for the position of the VTA is good enough and easy enough to read.
The manifold on the T3pro is very stiff, it has always been on my mind that a full length manifold should be fixed at both ends to ensure stability and cantilever manifolds have issues such as leveling and vibrations coupled with oscillation. The arm is much more rigid as a cantilever than the MG-1. Most of us understand the Terminator is based on the Ladegaard design but turned upside down with the arm over hanging.
The advantages are huge. First of all this arm will fit any size platter, second of all which is very important and might seem odd to some, is that the arm can sit over the platter therefore the wand length can be shortened. My first experience on a short wand is the Clearaudio TQI which I still have today, the short wand with the counter weight as far back away from the bearing pivot point as possible releases the stress on the bearing and gives a much more open and dynamic sound. This was proven by Vic’s own experiments which co-inside with my experiences. With the over hang, vibrations are dampen to with the hangers for the knife edge bearing which Vic employs. Now Vic knows I am not a fan of the knife edge bearing, however the argument is that the bearing coupled with the wand gives a much better bass response. This could be true as many argue that air bearing arms do not have bass, which I find not true. What is true is that the MG-1 which is an air bearing arm in both horizontal and vertical axis digs and responds to all the modulations in the record groove. While vertical modulation is only considered as the flatness of the record, I still feel that this is an important aspect of tracking which many overlook. The T3Pro has a much improved knife edge bearing compared with the original prototype. The headshell of the wand has also improved with a much easier shape and Vic has incorporated grub screws which can be taken out to adjust the weight of the headshell. A nice touch as some carts particularly lighter cartridges such as Decca London and Grado are almost impossible to get the counter weight right and a very light counter weight has to be employed or weight must be added at the front end. On the other end there are some very heavy carts such as Koetsu, Audionote and also my modified Denon 103R with wooden and aluminum bodies. Fitting of the air pressure and interconnects is easy as everything is above the armboard level while the MG1 all this this fixture underneath and it can be annoying as most of us know about fitted or changing tonearm cables underneath. The MG1 does require a much bigger air pump and bigger air pressure but it still very low compared to the other air bearing arms on the market. The T3pro3 is just even lower still and likely to be the lowest anywhere that I know of.
The manifold is much better made now, I recall our discussion a while back about the importance of a smooth surface for the air bearing to run on. Now it may sound crazy but air can cause friction ! well why do you think we have streamline cars and all those fancy wings on F1 cars ? well the air speed is not generated by the movement of the arm, but the air pressure being blown out. This will cause small turbulences and hence will vibrate the wand. If you drop the air pressure there may not be enough air for the wand to travel. So it made sense to have a very smooth surface and reduce air pressure as far as possible. Well T3Pro has just done that. The manifold and arm are all polished up almost mirror finish. You could almost track this arm with no air !!! that’s if your cart is light enough. This is a big improvement as reduction of vibrations in any arm allows you to pick and keep more signal from the stylus.
If the above challenges were not enough, we took it a step further. I showed Vic my SPU and I really wanted to track this linearly to hear the full potential (in my view). Well it was not easy, a special wand was made which allowed any SME type headshell to be fitted. Well here it is !!
I am not certain, but this could the worlds first SPU tracked by an air bearing arm. I was stunned by the refinement and sound quality. This is no easy feat, you are looking at 30g of cartridge being allowed to skate linearly across your precious record. It took me a few days to dial in the correct air pressure, VTF and VTA. This drove me nuts for a while as I did not want to give up, I just wanted the best SPU sounds I could get. This combination is one of the smoothest carts in the world. The SPU sound is like silk, mids to die for and just so easy on the ear. It may not be the most refine and dynamic cartridge in the world, but what it does do is musical and magical. I am a lucky man that I can try such an idea which is almost beyond madness. The best part is that air pressure is so low that you cannot hear it at the manifolds. This is a very very good sign. The SPU is not where I will stop !! I have a old Decca London MONO cart, a number of headshells I like to try, the list is almost endless !
There is not much wrong with this arm, it does take a bit of getting use to initially and it does take time to tweak to get the very best out of it (but name me an arm you don’t tweak or adjust ?). Changing arms is easy, you just pull off the tonearm wires at the tonearm side and remove the wand with the cart all in one. The next wand with the cart already setup with the right counter weight and VTF is ready to plug and play, just a quick adjustment of air pressure and VTA (if deemed necessary) and your away !! all of 2 or 3 minutes max. However, I must say on changing arms, I still prefer the MG-1 as it is slide on slide off mechanism – very clever. Finally the sound, it is as refine or probably more refine that any arm that I have fitted to my turntable, this includes the Schroeder DPS, Clearuadio TQI, ET2 and certainly the stock version of the MG1 (sorry mine is mod, but even my mod one is only on par at its best). The air bearing sound is similar with most well made arms, great soundstage which is wide, refinement with great micro dynamics and texture. The refinement will give you great extensions throughout the range which most arms cannot pick up. With a low pressure pump and a small surge tank which has to be one of the easiest air bearing arms you can play with and have the pump in the living room. One trick I learnt on pumps is to use a step down transformer (thanks WESLEY) – ie 230V / 220V down to 110V, this reduces the motor power and hence reduces the pump noise to a very acceptable level. I actually have mine in a box next to the hifi and you cannot hear the pump at all. Gone are the days where you had to place your pump in the basement or garage next door. Given the cost of some of those pivot arms on the market, this arm is a giant killer and still makes it a very affordable arm irrespective whether it is air bearing or not.
Most important of all ? YOU CAN SPU WITH IT !
