Reed Reed 5A
The Reed 5A brings tangential precision to vinyl without sacrificing rhythmic freedom, marrying vivid, stable imaging with articulate vocals, deep musical flow and convincing bass drive. Alan Sircom finds its geometry strips away familiar end-of-side distortion while its thoughtful adjustment and exceptionally accurate cueing unlock the potential of elite analogue systems.
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Deliciously Crispy
Sound Quality
96/100
Build Quality
84/100
Features Usability
91/100
Value for Money
96/100
Pros
Combines detailed neutrality and stable, articulate imaging with unipivot-like rhythm, dynamics and musical freedom.
Greatly reduces familiar vinyl and end-of-side distortion, yielding a notably clean, master-tape-like presentation.
Offers outstandingly precise stylus placement plus extensive VTA, azimuth and height adjustment; setup is painstaking but not frustrating.
Delivers strong value against elite rivals, with little at up to roughly 1.5 times its price said to challenge it.
Cons
Bass depth and slam are said to fall just short of the very best conventional tonearms.
Its cueing technique differs from conventional headshell handling and works best with the lift/lower arm.
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What Reviewers Are Saying
SOUND QUALITY PERFORMANCE 96/100
The review finds an unusually complete presentation: neutral and highly detailed, but also rhythmically free, dynamic and forceful. It portrays voices with exceptional solidity and focus, gives bass real drive and slam, and is said to make recordings sound closer to the master tape.
Overall Sound
96/100
Alan Sircom describes the 5A as combining unipivot-like freedom, rhythm and dynamics with the detailed neutrality of a parallel tracker. Vocals are portrayed as articulate and firmly centred, while the arm is said to handle music exceptionally well from beginning to end and to make recordings sound more like the master tape.
Tracking Performance
95/100
The review calls placement of the stylus in the groove outstandingly precise, making missed intros and outros largely a thing of the past. It also credits the arm with removing familiar vinyl limitations and delivering the energy, drive and slam associated with a conventional gimbal-bearing design.
FEATURES USABILITY PERFORMANCE 91/100
The 5A provides unusually extensive, precise adjustment without being described as frustrating to install. Its variable effective mass and broad stated cartridge-weight range should make it adaptable, although the review does not document partnerships with a wide variety of cartridges.
Adjustability
94/100
Specified provisions include precise VTA adjustment, substantial azimuth adjustment, height compatibility across a wide platter-height range and an integrated level. Despite the arm’s many options, the reviewer says setup is not difficult; it is painstaking rather than frustrating.
Cartridge Compatibility
88/100
With armwands specified from 10g to 16g effective mass and a stated cartridge-mass range reaching roughly 4g to 25g, the 5A appears capable of accommodating many cartridge choices. The review does not provide direct listening comparisons across different cartridge compliance types, so its real-world breadth is less fully documented.
Assessments of Build Quality, Usability, and Overall Propositions.
Build Quality
84/100
The supplied review offers little direct comment on machining, bearing execution, wiring, materials or long-term durability. Its praise for precision and the arm’s extensive adjustment provision suggests careful engineering, but there is not enough direct construction evidence to make stronger claims.
Value for Money
96/100
At a listed price range of about $7,798 to $11,995, the 5A is a serious high-end purchase. Even so, the review says that little costing up to roughly 1.5 times as much challenges it, a particularly strong endorsement of its competitiveness against expensive peers.
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Specifications
- Mounting distance
- 251 mm (platter diam.max.= 330 mm)
- Tracking error
- +/- 4 Minute of Angle (MOA)
- Effective mass
- 10g -16 g depends on the armwand material
- Height adjustment
- compatible with 26÷46 mm height platters
- VTA adjustment
- precision +/- 0.2 mm
- Azimuth adjustment
- +/- 8 deg
- Downforce range
- 10÷30 mN (cartridge mass 5.5 g – 19.5 g,(4.0 g – 25,0 g))
- Offset angle, overhang
- 0 deg, 0 mm
- Integrated level, accuracy
- +/- 2 mm/m
Manufacturer's Description — Reed
Reed 5A tonearm introduced as angling- 90 -tangential-pivot-tonearm, it is based on Double Birch/Thales geometry and will complement our tangential tonearm lineup.
P1, O1, P3 – Thales’ semicircle
P1-A1-P3, P1-A2-P3, P1-A3-P3 angles are 90⁰ each,
A1,1B1 = A2,1B2= A3,1B3 segments represent tonearm length,
1B – vertical axis of the tonearm,
1P2 – center of the circle, which is drawn through three points -1B1,1B2,1B3,- axis of rotation of the back link component
2P2 – center of the circle, which is drawn through three points -2B1,2B2,2B3,- axis of rotation of the front link component
1B1,2B1 = 1B2,2B2 = 1B3,2B3 – tonearm lever.
Armtube suspension system is similar to the one used in Reed 3P tonearm.
Tonearm’s back link uses low-noise ceramic rolling bearings.
Lever uses low-noise ceramic rolling bearing and rests on the sapphire – molybdenum carbide thrust bearing.
Sapphire – molybdenum carbide thrust bearings are also used for tonearm’s front link, vertical and horizontal axes.
Tonearm has VTA and azimuth setup and can be configured with Reed or SME (universal headshell connector) headshells.
To make sure tonearm setup is precisely horizontal, tonearm has integrated level and horizontal plane adjuster.
Comparing to regular pivot tonearms, Reed 5A does not require antiskating and has much less absolute tracking error (max. tracking error is +/- 4 Minute of Angle (MOA) (Fig.2). Pivot tonearms – approx. 1.2 – 2.5 deg. (Fig.3).
Comparing to other tangential tonearms, Reed 5A does not require any additional devices to work (e.g. compressors, electronic controllers), is compact and can be easily mounted on a wide range of turntables.
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- A 10 Audio Room 4 Music — in-store — Amsterdam Nieuw-West, Noord-Holland, Netherlands (website)
- Absolute Audio - Canada — in-store — Calgary, Alberta, Canada (website)
- Absolute Sounds — in-store — London, England, United Kingdom (website)
- Alma Music & Audio — online and in-store — San Diego, California, United States (website)
- Alternative Audio — in-store — Taunton, England, United Kingdom (website)
- Ana Mighty Sound — online and in-store — Paris, Île-de-France, France (website)
- Artisan Fidelity — in-store — Dyer, Indiana, United States (website)
- Audio Aktoren — online and in-store — Horten, Vestfold, Norway (website)
- Audio Freak — Germany (website)
- Audio Tempel — online and in-store — Zwolle, Overijssel, Netherlands (website)
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