DESIGNED BY FRANK SCHRÖDER
CB TONEARM
Frank Schröder created an entirely new, radical technique to decrease friction in captured bearings. The resultant experimentation generated a coefficient of friction lower than anything ever published. This is complemented with a new multilayer carbon fibre wand, establishing a new level in tonearm design.
Constrained layer damping and material transitions are used throughout the design to tune and separate sources from the impeding mechanical movement in the device. The end result is no discernible sonic fingerprint is added to your system by the wand.
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Magnetically centered and pre-loaded ceramic hybrid bearings eliminating bearing chatter completely, guaranteeing constant rigid structural coupling and silent ultra-low friction movement
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Unique system for lateral movement damped by eddy current induction
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Symmetrical mass distribution around the central bearing axes prevents external excitation to cause any cantilever deflection
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The geometry and mass balance prevents change in VTF when altering VTA
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Bearing for vertical movement is on the same plane as the record, so the arm is immune to warp wow effects
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Wiring harness with extremely low dielectric losses allows usage of any MM cartridges with proper capacitive coupling to the phonostage
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Symmetrical layout of the conductors preventing RF and EMI entering your preamplifier
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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
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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
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Magnetic anti-skating - dynamic compensation for the varying skating forces across the record
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.
