The Supatrac Tonearm: A Garrard 301 Deserves a Better Arm
Hifi.nl has a report by Ruud Jonker on the Supatrac tonearm, heard at the shop Rhapsody, supplemented by a conversation with inventor Richard Braine. I found the inventor's story the most beautiful part, because it starts with old equipment.
During the lockdown Braine received old gear from a neighbouring house: a LEAK Stereo 20 and two Garrard 301 turntables from 1963, fitted with SME 3009 arms and Ortofon SPU cartridges. He sold the LEAK amplifiers on eBay and kept the Garrards. He wanted to give them better arms. He took the Well Tempered arm as a starting point, found it too polite and a bit dull, and designed his own version. At fifteen he had already bought a second-hand Linn Sondek with an inheritance of 300 pounds.
The core idea sits in the bearing. The pivot point has been reduced to a single point facing the cartridge, and the arm hangs from two wires that meet at an apex. That should mean little friction and a lot of freedom sideways and up and down. That it would be better than the best ceramic ABEC bearings is Braine's own claim. The tube is carbon fibre with parallel fibres and is still made in London. There are several lengths; the standard version fits Rega, Linn, Technics and SME, and mounts for other turntables are made to measure.
At Rhapsody the arm (the Blackbird and the Nighthawk) played in a set with Marten Coltrane Statement Quintet speakers and a Döhmann Helix Two MK3. The reviewer calls it one of the best analogue demonstrations he has experienced, but stays cautious: the result comes from the synergy of the whole system. Braine himself says vinyl is very stable and will still be good in five hundred years, unlike magnetic tape. In a world of collectors of old tapes and records, that remark stays with you.
Source: hifi.nl
During the lockdown Braine received old gear from a neighbouring house: a LEAK Stereo 20 and two Garrard 301 turntables from 1963, fitted with SME 3009 arms and Ortofon SPU cartridges. He sold the LEAK amplifiers on eBay and kept the Garrards. He wanted to give them better arms. He took the Well Tempered arm as a starting point, found it too polite and a bit dull, and designed his own version. At fifteen he had already bought a second-hand Linn Sondek with an inheritance of 300 pounds.
The core idea sits in the bearing. The pivot point has been reduced to a single point facing the cartridge, and the arm hangs from two wires that meet at an apex. That should mean little friction and a lot of freedom sideways and up and down. That it would be better than the best ceramic ABEC bearings is Braine's own claim. The tube is carbon fibre with parallel fibres and is still made in London. There are several lengths; the standard version fits Rega, Linn, Technics and SME, and mounts for other turntables are made to measure.
At Rhapsody the arm (the Blackbird and the Nighthawk) played in a set with Marten Coltrane Statement Quintet speakers and a Döhmann Helix Two MK3. The reviewer calls it one of the best analogue demonstrations he has experienced, but stays cautious: the result comes from the synergy of the whole system. Braine himself says vinyl is very stable and will still be good in five hundred years, unlike magnetic tape. In a world of collectors of old tapes and records, that remark stays with you.
Source: hifi.nl
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