The Reed 5T Laser-controlled Tangential-Pivot Tonearm | Preview

At this year's AXPONA Tom Martin stopped by the AXISS / Air Tight room to discover the Reed 5T Tangential-Pivot Tonearm featured on the Reed Muse 1C turntable, driven by the Air-Tight ATE-3011 phonostage and the Air-Tight ATC-7 line control preamp to the Franco Serblin Ktema loudspeakers.
Shot & Edited by TAS Digital Managing Editor Charles Kinder
About Tom Martin:
Tom is a long-time audiophile. He began his reviewing career after acquiring the The Absolute Sound magazine in 1997 and then hi-fi+ magazine in 2002. He has worked closely with Harry Pearson and Robert Harley at TAS and with Roy Gregory and Alan Sircom at hi-fi+. Since Tom and his teams expanded the TAS and Plus platforms in the digital domain, he has served as Chief Content Officer.
Shot and edited by TAS Digital Managing Editor Charles Kinder
What Is The Absolute Sound?
The Absolute Sound magazine has been a leading publication in high-end audio since 1972. Since the early 2000s, The Absolute Sound has expanded to include web, newsletter, digital magazine, social media, KZbin and Substack platforms. The Absolute Sound platforms have a global audience of over 500,000 audiophiles.
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At this year's AXPONA Tom Martin had the chance to talk with Michael Vamos of Audio Skies about JMF Audio and their line of power amplifiers, phono stage, cables, and more...
JMF Audio's HQS 6002 Reference Power Amplifier | Skye Audio

[@JKadison]

That's awesome! Beautiful!

[@dougg1075]

Wow. So cool to see the evolution of this technology continues . We get to see the “ what if” actually happen.

[@RUfromthe40s]

this is old trechnology ,my sharp optonica from late 70´s it reads the grroves and tunes the cartridges using laser

[@RUfromthe40s]

imagine when they start to use quartz engines in direct drive turntables.OH! they started to do that in the second half of the 70´s ,as they had scales not needing one to see the tracking force on the needle or speed controler like in stroboscope platters and needles had 3 times more usage time and costed 1/10 of the price , those were the day´s ,STAY TUNE FOR MORE HAPPY DAY´S EPISODES , "those were the days" was from archie bunker and his wife beautifull voice, now FAMILY GUY ripped off the first verses of the song in ALL IN tHE FAMILLY, filmed before a life ostrich, AH! AH!

[@Stelios.Posantzis]

The world has been waiting for this tonearm for decades! The rest of the system is the cherry on top!

[@RUfromthe40s]

well in the 70´s there was a very similar system in technics or optonica´s sharp, called by several , linear tracking ,not laser but a photo electric celule ,it did the same this installed on the cartridge, technics called it T4P and other brands payed technics to use it

[@Stelios.Posantzis]

@@RUfromthe40s Thanks for this. But was the mechanical construction on par or was it another electronic gizmo? Can you remember any particular models or series with these feature?

[@RUfromthe40s]

@@Stelios.Posantzis as an example all T4P turntables from technics ,full automatic in early 80´s or pioneer or Grundig that used the same system or all tangential turntables and it´s reading system called linear tracking ,enough or you want to specify, technics SL-B350, SL-10 ,SL-MA1, SL-Q200, SL-BD22K, or OMP-10 cartridge from Ortofon also TCM-200, grundigs PS-4500, pioneer PL-S50 etc.

[@trappenweisseguy27]

The non air bearing tangential tracking tonearms from the 70’s and 80’s (particularly the Japanese) are nowhere near the class of modern designs.

[@budsmoker4201120]

Just a beautiful rig!🎉❤🎉

[@thebigman108]

Funily I will be setting up a 5t tommorow and had to set up a 5a yesterday wonderful arms.

[@bilguana11]

We all remember our Rabco tonearms.

[@HP_____]

Not centrifugal force, it's the skating force that overhang geometry in offset angle tonearm generated that this arm wants to eliminate.

[@BB..........]

That is a really cool design. I'd love to hear one someday, but will probably never get the chance.

[@RUfromthe40s]

when new i tried several and had the pioneer refered ,it seemed a new and very good system but in a few years problems apeared in all tangential turntables but they were very good, even Sharp released one that when at the end of the side A from an L.P it got under the record and played side B

[@BB..........]

@@RUfromthe40s I'm talking about this particular tonearm, not the the mid-fi stuff from years ago.

[@RUfromthe40s]

@@BB.......... it might be acurate but a long and large system for a tonearm , but it looks good ,not practical and with long large wires or tube isolation conected to it ,it might get in the way of the anti-skating

[@paulomontero12]

Love how slow the tone arm falls onto the record, that’s precision.

[@glenncurry3041]

Actually not sure how good that is. You want the stylus to be fully seated to distribute the pressure across the walls. If the tip is lowered slowly, it will bounce against the sides with incidental contact until that happens! Causing wall damage. Called "Needle drop". The annoying click in between cuts when that is done.

[@RUfromthe40s]

@@glenncurry3041 well smoother, might only mean not droped from the higher point to the record, i myself started without any help only the hand and my father would kill me if i let the stylus drop fast from above ,so when i was 12 i started to use only the hand only recentelly after the 50´s i started to use a 76 automatic turntable it drops but slower not hanging between grooves, also helped being a dj for 35 years using two sl-1200mkII i can any drop it as fast as i want,even choose the part of the song i want to play ,(there are diferencies in the way the grooves look) ,the light on the SL-1200MKII is the best for that and some say the cd is more acessible ,aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@scottwolf8633]

How does this compare with the Revox series of photodiode/computational IC's, feedback system of the Linatrack 1.75 inch arm/tables of the late '70's. I am the original owner of a B-790 and use it.

[@louisxiiii]

So it's a pivoted tonearm on a sled that keeps it roughly centered on the groove, with the conventional pivot allowing the arm to fall in place in the groove and track without the high side forces required to move other linear tracking designs, or the stutter-step of some early servo - motorized linear tracking designs. I like the concept, it seems so obvious now, but no one ever thought of putting a conventional arm on a sled to keep it aligned before, as far as I know. Am I understanding this correctly?

[@OS_SWE]

Is this then the solution to playing off-centre pressings without any fluctuation? I have a lot of great sounding records that are unfortunately pressed off centre to various degrees (seemed to be a big problem in the beginning of the vinyl revival we've seen the last decade) and I've been thinking of solutions, one being to simply drill up the spindle hole and placing the record on the platter off centre itself, compensating that way.

[@jharloe]

Damn!

[@racostatorres1]

Kind of cool. But the 1983 Pioneer PL-L1000 has a very precise and smooth linear tracking arm, mounted on on a carriage driven by a linear motor. The control is analog. Even adjusted for inflation, at less then 1/8 the cost.

[@RUfromthe40s]

they were not sold by the thousands and the ones still in good condition are expensive

[@HP_____]

I own couple Pioneer PL-1000s before and the problem with that system is that it also tracks eccentricity that's really not necessary as it made it hard for the motor to keep track of off tangency and the servo can go berserk sliding back and forth. The Rabco parallel tracker is more sensible and less belabored and it only tracks forward grooves and later it was copied by Goldmund in their T3 tonearm.

[@tinetannies4637]

An idler wheel, what a curious choice to drive the platter

[@trappenweisseguy27]

I don’t get it either but some “experts” think rim drive gives you more “slam” to the music. They never seem to consider that if the stylus could ever put enough pressure on the groove to alter the speed that the entire cantilever would be yanked out 🤷‍♂️.

[@carlodelysid]

"You don't need any fancy 12' arms"...... just this simple computer controlled laser guided $21,000 arm. Christ!

[@ColocasiaCorm]

Wow this convo was painful

[@mpi5850]

Did somebody say overkill?

[@FOH3663]

They didn't develop it "because it was easy, ... they did it because it's hard", JFK. btw; JFK and Jackie were gifted an Ampex console stereo ... before it was installed, they opted to have a custom stereo installed in the Oval Living Room. No visible wires or loudspeakers... Stromberg Carlson components were custom installed at the top of the bookshelves, firing upward into a clamshell ornamental plaster ceiling. It was said to wonderfully fill the room with stereo sound.

[@jctai100]

If I could get the tonearm used for say......... 10K, I could see putting it on my Technics 1200G

[@SweatLaserXP]

$21k for a tonearm- that is state-of-the-art right there. Sigh... I'll have to live with my Rega P1, unfortunately 😅

[@RUfromthe40s]

or one can buy a new mercedes diesel with a renault engine

[@SweatLaserXP]

@@RUfromthe40s or pay off some of your student loans and/or credit card debt 😁

[@denbofrancisco6958]

Maybe someday they’ll somehow make a laser that will be able to read information from some sort of disc?, without noise, better S/N, negligible wow & flutter, eh.., er, hmm, wait a minute…

[@RUfromthe40s]

at the time only a electronic photo-celular sensor on the cartridge to read the grooves, like the T4P from technics

[@trappenweisseguy27]

A Japanese company came out with a system that used a laser to read the grooves, almost immediately shelved it for years to work on the design, and then rereleased it again years later. It wasn’t a success. I can’t remember what the problems were (possibly dust in the groove or the laser was actually wearing the lp’s). I think the company was named something like Finial .

[@ptg01]

Close to $50K for TT, tonearm and cartridge ? Wow....

[@pervertedalchemist9944]

You just know this turntable is going to cost an arm and a leg based on the laser alone.

[@Mr.HotRod]

From what I can surmise this whole system (Showen) is close to or a little over a quarter of a million dollars. Not for the faint of heart.

[@davidlong1786]

@@Mr.HotRod Not for the intelligent, you mean.

[@MichaelM-to4sg]

Fits any turntable, though may need a custom machined arm board. It costs around $20k Not sure this will sound any different than their brilliant 5A arm. I’ll stick with my Schroeder LT, that’s also a tangential arm. Cost much less than either Reed tangential arm although it’s typically a 2 year wait. I don’t know the lead time for ordering a Reed arm

[@RUfromthe40s]

the laser is the most cheap component in the turntable

[@faludabutt8253]

And the head 😂

[@ziqfriq]

Even if you acknowledge the term "centrifugal force"--which physics pedants don't, it's a "pseudo-force"--it has absolutely nothing to do with the force acting on a tonearm. "Centrifugal force"--I think it's an o.k. term--is what would cause a marble set on the platter to roll off. If the marble were constrained to remain stationary in the lab frame, e.g. by a tonearm, there would be no pseudo-force. This is not the first time I have seen this term improperly applied to record playing.

[@olddavid4]

Doesn't anyone recall the Zero 100? It was also much ado about nothing. The complexity seems to be the object not the results.

[@ziqfriq]

The Zero-100 was one of a few solutions to the problem of tracking angle error. The Rabco SL-8 was another, the Eminent Technology yet another. This design appears to be closest to the Rabco concept. The Rabco's servo motor could actually be heard in the air while a record was playing and with a microphonic cartridge (like the B&O popular at the time) through the speakers. I expect the motor here is much quieter. But all have complexities and drawbacks, compared to a standard pivoted arm. I speak of the Rabco from experience.

[@saint6563]

Thousands of dollars here, thousands of dollars there, thousands of dollars everywhere!!! OK, let's hear it... scratchy scratchy scratchy

[@KruseScharling]

Bang & Olufsen, developed a computerised record player back in 1974 with the name Beogram 4000. So I am not exited of this presented turntable.

[@damirhlobik6488]

21000 euro????

[@davidlong1786]

Ya know there is a better use for a laser and it's in very affordable players that read CDs 😅 Always amazes me that people will spent outrageous money on an antiquated format and ignore the superior playback of a digital format. Oh well can't cure stupid.

[@rutles4everdudleycooper441]

The problem with CDs is no matter how much anti skate you use, the stylus slides across the disc………………they are quiet though.

[@davidlong1786]

@@rutles4everdudleycooper441 🤣 skating away on the thin ice of the new day.

[@garth56]

Goldmund did this ages ago with their parallel tracking arm which was also copied by Pierre Lurne on their J1 turntable at significantly reduced cost to the Goldmund 🙂

[@HP_____]

This is different as it does not track in parallel with the radius. It actually pivots so it has TWO pivot points. It's based on the Thales semi-circle geometry and an inventor Birch had a patent on something like this but it's passive without servo. So basically this is a servo version of the Birch style tonearms, which include the Schroeder LT, Reed 5A, and Thiele TA01, not including all the diy projects out there. Not saying this is better or should be less expensive or whatever, simply stating it is different. I have an academic and hobbyist's interest in tonearm designs regardless of price. Tonearms are fun!