Munich 2013

I found Mr. Daniel Schuch exhibiting his girder-like tone arm on the floor of one of the big main halls. As a group of fascinated Japanese audiophiles looked on, Schuch demonstrated the workings of his pivoted tangential-tracking tonearm, which he modestly characterizes as "The perfect pick-up arm."

The photo fails to clearly show the string that goes around the pivoted head shell and extends to and around the circular wheel at the back of the arm. This system is what keeps the stylus tangential to the grooves.

A second arm on the counter was apart and showed the many pieces needed to produce the desired result.

While the proof is in the listening, it appeared to me that so many small moving parts might produce a variety of resonances that could travel through the arm and negatively affect the sound.

However, that is pure speculation. Another tonearm designer told me he admired the effort and found the design ingenious, though he felt the designer had concentrated on solving one problem (pivoted arm tracking error), while ignoring others the solution created.

If "The Perfect Tone arm" sounds as good as it looks, it should sound very good indeed!