Thrax CB TONEARM
The design skills of Frank Schröder are no where more apparent than in the CB tonearm. Visually simplicity with timeless aesthetic conceals cutting edge technology and mechanical wizardry. Simple principles of physics applied in a masterful way like balancing the mass of the tonearm on the bearing to reject vibrations conducted through the mounting plate that originate from other turntable components such as the motor, plinth, bearing or airborne feedback, any force acting on that point will effectively eliminates external excitation by generating equal forces to all sides of the arm, maintaining the dynamic stability of the system and preventing a deflection of the cantilever effectively ignoring the incoming disturbance.
Another issue are the disturbances generated constantly by the cartridge. Problem here is energy reflected back to the cartridge due to the stiff bearings of tonearms. Here the issue is addressed with adjustable counterweight coupling to sink some of this energy and a wand that is super stiff and very well damped coupling those vibrations to the magnetic centring of the lateral bearing, operating as an eddy current brake, absorbing all the vibrations that reach it. Different type of materials are used to create an impedance mismatch for all the vibrations travelling the path. This reduces energy coupling without being visually noticeable.
The use of magnetic force is exploited in the anti-skating compensation. Here a system of 3 magnets takes care of this without any dangling weight or spring eliminating yet another source of signal contamination.
Tonearm effective mass is controlled by the use of different material cartridge mounting plates allowing the use of almost any cartridge on the arm.
Last but not least the use of continuous wire from cartridge to preamplifier with no intermediate contact or joints maintains cartridge signal integrity.
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Specifications
- Bearing
- Magnetically centered and pre-loaded ceramic hybrid bearings eliminating bearing chatter completely, guaranteeing constant rigid structural coupling and silent ultra-low friction movement
- Lateral movement
- Unique system for lateral movement damped by eddy current induction
- Mass distribution
- Symmetrical mass distribution around the central bearing axes prevents external excitation to cause any cantilever deflection
- VTF and VTA
- The geometry and mass balance prevents change in VTF when altering VTA
- Warp wow effects
- Bearing for vertical movement is on the same plane as the record, so the arm is immune to warp wow effects
- Wiring harness
- Wiring harness with extremely low dielectric losses allows usage of any MM cartridges with proper capacitive coupling to the phonostage
- Conductor layout
- Symmetrical layout of the conductors preventing RF and EMI entering your preamplifier
- Armwand construction
- Multi-layer armwand construction using carbon fiber and other composites create extreme torsional and bending stiffness with very high internal damping factors. This prevents any signal reflection back into the cartridge
- Counterweight
- A dual section counterweight is incorporated with an adjustable damping system. This allows tuning of structural vibration absorptions to prevent signal reflection across the armwand
- Anti-skating
- Magnetic anti-skating - dynamic compensation for the varying skating forces across the record
- Adjustable parameters
- VTF\nVTA\nOverhang\nOffset Angle\nAzimuth\nAnti-skating\nCounterweight damping\nEffective mass
- 9" Version
- Effective Length: 239.3mm\nPivot to Spindle distance: 222\nOverhang: 14.52\nEffective mass: 14g\nEffective mass with heavy plate: 19g\nMounting collar: 24-25mm - single M6 hole\nDeflection force Vertically: >2mg\nDeflection force horizontally: >3.5mg
- 12" Version
- Effective Length: 282mm\nPivot to Spindle distance: 267.48mm\nOverhang: 17.3\nEffective mass: 18g\nEffective mass with heavy plate: 23g\nMounting collar: 24-25mm - single M6 hole\nDeflection force Vertically: >2mg\nDeflection force horizontally: >3.5mg
Manufacturer's Description — Thrax
The design skills of Frank Schröder are no where more apparent than in the CB tonearm. Visually simplicity with timeless aesthetic conceals cutting edge technology and mechanical wizardry. Simple principles of physics applied in a masterful way like balancing the mass of the tonearm on the bearing to reject vibrations conducted through the mounting plate that originate from other turntable components such as the motor, plinth, bearing or airborne feedback, any force acting on that point will effectively eliminates external excitation by generating equal forces to all sides of the arm, maintaining the dynamic stability of the system and preventing a deflection of the cantilever effectively ignoring the incoming disturbance.
Another issue are the disturbances generated constantly by the cartridge. Problem here is energy reflected back to the cartridge due to the stiff bearings of tonearms. Here the issue is addressed with adjustable counterweight coupling to sink some of this energy and a wand that is super stiff and very well damped coupling those vibrations to the magnetic centring of the lateral bearing, operating as an eddy current brake, absorbing all the vibrations that reach it. Different type of materials are used to create an impedance mismatch for all the vibrations travelling the path. This reduces energy coupling without being visually noticeable.
The use of magnetic force is exploited in the anti-skating compensation. Here a system of 3 magnets takes care of this without any dangling weight or spring eliminating yet another source of signal contamination.
Tonearm effective mass is controlled by the use of different material cartridge mounting plates allowing the use of almost any cartridge on the arm.
Last but not least the use of continuous wire from cartridge to preamplifier with no intermediate contact or joints maintains cartridge signal integrity.
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Authorized dealers for Thrax CB TONEARM
- 3mA Audio — online and in-store — Houston, Texas, United States (website)
- Ana Mighty Sound — online and in-store — Paris, Île-de-France, France (website)
- BELHIFI — online and in-store — Meise, Vlaams Gewest, Belgium (website)
- Cake Audio — in-store — San Clemente, California, United States (website)
- Design Audio — in-store — Aix en Provence, Île-de-France, France (website)
- Dr Vinyl — in-store — Middle River, Maryland, United States (website)
- Dream Audio Components — online and in-store — Dunaharaszti, Hungary (website)
- Madformusic — in-store — Arese, Lombardia, Italy (website)
- Rhapsody — in-store — Ravenstein, Noord-Brabant, Netherlands (website)
- Stellar Home Audio — in-store — Commack, New York, United States (website)
and 3 more verified dealers