The Bool Audio Blog
Sept 2024 - A long overdue update on the Clear Wave unipivot tonearm
So its been a year already and very long time since my last update. I had anticipated taking a break from writing blog posts during the Christmas period of 2023 and resuming in the new year. However, that plan never came to fruition, and I've been on hiatus ever since.
Despite the lack of updates, I have not halted the actual production of the tonearm. Its been quite the opposite, I've been diligently machining and tackling the numerous challenges that arise when manufacturing a complex, high-end product. an there have been many.
I have had to change and re make numerous pars of the arm over the past few months sometimes because of me making them out of tolerance ain eth machine shop and sometime jus because the design itself was not correct.
After completing the 1st batch of head shells we realized I had put the two small holes that hold the finger lift on with 2x M2 screws was out by 0.5mm, this rendered them unusable, so in the recycle bin they went. "this was user error aka me setting the up the CNC machine wrong. ;-)"
Another part that needed re-making was the arm rest, We made the cut-out twice as deep as it needed to be on the original model. Above is the correct finished and anodized version.
The rubber cut-outs have be press cut with a custom made die cutter.
Some arm wands at the assembly stage.
Some assembly at the dining room table.
The anodizing is removed on the lathe before installing the nickel silver ballast weight, this is to keep continuity for grounding. Note the use of some custom black Delrin soft jaws as to not damage the anodizing.
Nickle silver ballast installed with Loctite 601, this also doubles up as the nut for attaching the counterweight bolt.
Also note the small hole on the ID wall of the ballast that accepts the ground wire, this is secured with an adjacent grub screw.
An assembled arm que and some pistons, these have taken allot of R&D to complete.
First production model
We have managed to finish off the majority of the parts to make the first batch of Clear Wave arms but have yet to finalize a few small things that need changes along with a full user/ service guide for the arm. There is also the packaging to design too, something that is allot more complicated than you may think, especially for us as we have never done anything like that before.
Below you will find more detailed photos of this first production model.
The arm mounted on the LP12 turntable with outer platter removed to show the antiskate weight.
The arm wand removed form the LP12, this allows for easy cartridge mounting, servicing and the ability to clean and dust off your LP12 without the worry of damaging the cartridge.
Underside of the body showing the hardened silver steel pivot inside, also note the added nickel silver body ballast weight inset in to the bottom and the bias weight attached to its thread.
Another view of the arm wand removed showing the proprietary micro din connector. The main reason of it being proprietary is that there was nothing available on the market that would fit our design.
Underside of the head shell showing the cartridge connecting wires. We have used a copper litz silk insulated wire for our tonearms.
Finally installed on the LP12 turntable with Ortofon Quintet Blue MC cartridge. So far we have tried the Quintet and the A90 with great results.
Moving magnet cartridges also work well but they tend to be allot smaller and don't weigh as much so the standard counter weight has to be pushed back quite far to accommodate. They also may require a shim to allow for the hight difference. This is due to the scope of the arms VTA adjustment.
Clear Wave cable V2.0
Since the introduction of the Clearwave Linn style tonearm cable and its positive reception, We have wanted to design and manufacture an even more bespoke version that is entirely made in-house. However, this has proven to be quite a challenge so we made a couple of compromises.
The new cable is utilizing a high-quality 2-pair, flat balanced double Reussen shielded cable from Gotham Audio in Switzerland.
We have also outsourced the gold-plated connector pins used in our DIN connector and some high quality gold plated copper AECO RCA receptacles we use on our RCA bodies.
DIN bodies made from black PEEK thermoplastic.
RCA bodies made mostly from black PEEK thermoplastic, some have been made with natural coloured PEEK.
Here we are starting to produce the Y cable splitter from black PEEK thermoplastic to help incorporate the ground wire.
Each side of the Y splitter has 2 or more steps to machine, there is a huge amount of work that goes in to making these Y connectors but this part is really what makes this cable possible.
Assembling a cable for an LP12, note the natural PEEK mdin receptacle to add some contrast.
The reason for PEEK
You may be asking yourself why use PEEK for audio connectors instead of anodized aluminum like everyone else. We decided on PEEK thermoplastic for two reasons. First, the logistics and cost of sending parts to be anodized versus the cost of buying expensive PEEK works out to be about the same. This allows us to keep as much production in-house as possible. The second, and I think most important reason, is that it's an insulator rather than a conductor like aluminum.
The choice of using an insulator for the connectors will help keep the capacitance down and also negate the need to ground the DIN plug and RCA body. This will also help with reducing microphonics.
Finally the cable itself has the same basic topology as the 1st version in that the shield is only connected to the ground wires at each end and not to any of the signal wires at any point.
Thanks for stopping by and hopefully i will post another update in the near future.
Bye for now...