Thomas Schick – Schick Tonearm

Three Finishes Available:

Gold-plated, shiny

Black chrome, matte

Ni­ckel Pal­la­di­um, matte

Fixed RCA (1.1m)

5-Pin Connector Option

A tonearm lift and antiskating is of course included.

With regular and / or heavyweight.

Introduction

Vinyl records are still very popular as a sound source, although there are several digital formats that claim to deliver the ultimate sound, whatever that is. For whatever reasons the vinyl LP is so popular, if you’re reading this it seems like being a topic for you.

It is astonishing that many turntables from the 1960s, or even older ones, are still the first choice for high quality record playback today. These old devices are still in use today because of their outstanding sound quality, which even today is only achieved by a few devices.

In the case of tonearms, old copies are often afflicted with considerable defects, as I unfortunately had to find out myself. A reason for me to start my own development. First I thought about general sound ideals.

Two main ideals of sound seem to have become established. First there is the sound lover who prefers a ‘warm, romantic, pleasant’ reproduction. The tone color is important here, frequency range or colorations are accepted as long as nothing ‘annoying’ appears in the sound image. On the other hand, there is the ‘lover of detail’, here there must be a clinically clean resolution of the sound, even if the naturalness is lost.

(Of course the boundaries are fluid, only the extremes are listed here)

Usually both types are bought with serious compromises. The pleasant sound is often perceived as dull, two-dimensional and not very vivid. The detailed ideal often has a bright, unnatural touch.

The best of both worlds

How can you combine the advantages of pleasant AND detailed sound?

In order to keep the level of detailed information high, the tracking information of the cartridge should ot be compromised by movements in the tonearm.

The pleaseant sound can be preserved by careful choice of materials. The simple looking armtube consist of 9 parts inside alone to treat resonances and engergies, sent there by the cartridge.

A precise tonearm with ball bearings and stable axis guidance was the solution for me.

The situation

Many audiophiles around the world like old 12 inch tonearms from manufacturers such as Ortofon or SME. These arms can produce a nice sound, but the resolution of detail is limited,even with various upgrades. Most of the time the tonearms are in very bad condition, just consider the 40 years of operation.

Loose or worn bearings are the worst prerequisite for good sound and also damage the records and wear the needle faster.

Even in the best condition, the classic bearings leave a lot to be desired. Forty years ago the quality of the bearings was not as good as it is today. In many models, steel balls are simply placed between the tonearm parts.

Even if you think of the rest of the tonearm as mechanically absolutely stable, the bearings are the limiting factor. If the tonearm has play here, all fine details are lost. The needle is supposed to scan all details and act as a generator to convert them into electrical signals. If the structure of the arm works against these finest movements or gives way, the corresponding detail cannot be tracked by the needle or the movement is not correctly converted into an electrical signal. So the play in knife or single point bearings can hardly be a good thing. The advantage here is first of all in the inexpensive production.

The problem with the single point arms is that they tumble around the bearing point. You can dampen this with viscous liquids, but then you have an arm that doesn’t turn particularly easy.

Due to the design, a knife bearing has play. The knife edge wears out quickly and then presents a rough, uneven surface in comparison to the modulations of the plate groove. Even a theoretically smooth knife edge still has upward play and can move accordingly in this direction. A movement that cannot lead to correct tracking.

Conclusion

Although these factors are theoretically known, in reality they are not applied to most tonearms on the market. If so, you can find them in, let’s say, not exactly cheap tonearms. Many new tonearm designs also do not allow the use of heavy cartridges.

Against the trend towards mass-produced goods, outsourcing and production in low-cost countries, mytonearms are completely handmade in Germany.

I would be happy to make one for you too.