 The A.N.T.I.
The Funk A.N.T.I. (as shown at Bristol 2008)
The A.N.T.I.
Funk’s first arm A.N.T.I. (F • X), really challenges convention to show how little we’ve progressed.
Introduction:
Recall: We are after information smaller than the wavelength of light (~ 500 nano metres).
If that seems a bit meaningless try thinking of it this way: It’s so small that a laser would swamp, yes, SWAMP the groove, yet a tiny diamond can trace it. Strange but true.
Well, you’ve heard it all before: “We went back to basics…” Well, we did and here is our story.
In order to extract this tiny signal, let’s start with the arm tube: it needs to be both stiff and lightweight.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that these requirements conflict and cause us trouble.
Ever heard “Needletalk”? It’s that sound you get with the volume turned down but the sound is not from the stylus. It’s the arm tube flexing as it resonantes from the energy travelling down it and so radiates sound!
With the tube bending, how can the cartridge be held stable? Obviously it can’t.
Already we’ve lost information before we’ve begun and with it we’ve lost our goal of fidelity.
The “Tone Arm”
Tubes are stiffest at controling torsional or twisting forces. Fishing rods, made from (very stiff) carbon fibre, whip like crazy.…And once bending starts, decay is s-l-o-w. Controlling flexing is very difficult,
So, despite even ‘exotic’ materials, Magnesium, Titanium or Carbon Fibre, the massive 30dB peaks in our arms are typical; what’s worse it’s in the critical mid band.
As it’s due to the same fishing-rod-style of lengthwise resonances, it’s easy to see that conventional “damping” doesn’t work. It will just add mass and make the problem start lower in frequency.
Simply, no one has succeeded here.
Sadly the term “Tone Arm” is all too apt. Is there truly no answer?
Enter F • X…
Funk’s F • X technology, (“F dot Cross”) is physics, applied…and it works. Elegantly so.
So, now we see that everyone’s been looking in the wrong place (as usual!) and it’s not the material but the basic design to blame, what can be done?
Basic mechanics: Compared to tubes, “I” beams may twist easily, they are, however, incredibly effective at resisting lengthwise bending.
F • X is a tube with crossed “I” beam pair as an integral part of the inside of a thin wall tube.
The “Cross-beam” resists lengthwise bending in all directions, not just up-down / left-right,
The tube ensure that we get no nasty surprises with torsional modes.
The thin wall is easy to damp.
The result? A platform for our cartridge more secure and more stable than any tube before it.…and by an order of magnitude.
Freed from nasty high Q resonances, reproduction is now more relaxed with better spatial information and greater dynamics. Following tunes is indeed easier. Transients start and stop with breathtaking impact whilst low level information is portayed with incredible sensitivity.
…and another pat pend for Funk.
The Bearing…
Everyone automatically asks “What’s the bearing?” So let’s get that one out of the way.
A unipivot has a quality which sets it apart from others: its inherent instability works to keeps the cantilever less stressed then other pivot arrangements.
To handle the extra energy down the arm tube, A.N.T.I.’s bearing is the best - a gyroscope grade iridium point and sapphire unipivot.
Balanced Bias Control…
In pivoted arms, a bias force pushes the cartridge towards to the centre and with that the (springy) cantilever / the coils go out of alignment. The trouble is that it is not even. It increases gradually. How many of you have noticed at the ne doof the life of your cartridge the cantileve is sitting out of alignment? This is due to the small continuous bias force not being balanced.
- Wear on your precious stylus increases more on one side, by a factor of four! If you are using a cartridge which is costing you £1 an LP then you are throwing good money away.
- Mis-aligned coils means more distortion and limits transients.
- Magnets, thread and weights or springs all pull the arm back incorrectly. They only do an approximate job.
A.N.T.I.’s Balanced Bias Control matches the inward pull. Novel and worthy of another pat pend.
Dynamic VTA…
VTA: (Vertical Tracking Angle) When records are cut, in order to clear the swarf, the cutting chisel (it really is a chisel) is set at an angle. On replay if the stylus angle is slightly different, you can hear it.
This is VTA. It is a critical parameter and is adjusted by raising or lower the rear of the arm.
Unlike carridge offset angle, VTA can’t be set to a mathematical value as it depends on tracking weight, cartridge design and records themselves. It needs to be optimised during use.
Yet, on virtually all arms, adjusting VTA for the listener is a real chore.
As it’s easy to hear the effect and what you’ve been missing, what’s the point of having a great arm you can’t adjust easily?
Well Funk’s arms will all have Dynamic VTA.
Simply turn a knob, whilst playing and listen for the best sound. ±3mm is catered for.
Distortion – Distortion – Distortion: AC25 – For even Lower distortion…
From the foregoing, we hope you can see we really have gone back to basics and the results are going to be quite special. You may have thought that we’ve done enough. It certainly would have been enough for any other manufacturer.
Maybe so but the following can only serve to demonstrate the thoroughness and attention to detail we put ourselves through when designing a new product.
So, what is the last area to be considered? Offset angle. But hasn’t that been sorted decades ago?
The holy grail for record replay is parallel tracking, where the cartridge follows the original path of the cutter and for this, pivoted arms need an offset angle.
Talk to audiophiles. They refer to a sort of indefinable ‘rightness’ with the sound from a parallel tracking arm. What they are hearing is the lower overall distortion.
At the same time there are real problems with making a parallel tracker work – Don’t think for an instant that they are “zero” error devices. They are not for you can never get the error below about .5º, and that is right across the record, thereby leaving further room for improvement - but that is a discussion for another day!
Pivoted arms are here to stay. Manufacturers are all happy with conventional geometry. They must be, thay all use the same geometric alignment.
Well if they are all optimised, then there’s little else to be done. But are these designs truly operating at their optimum?
Well, the trouble makers at Funk weren’t happy to take anything for granted. Back to basics, out with the slide rules, check; double check; scratch your ‘ead some more and Oh Look!
A genuinely new geometry.
Called AC25 it actually has a lower distortion footprint than any previous arm! And you can hear it.
Lower distortion, More stable mounting, Ease of use. The Arm truly re-defined.
A.N.T.I.:
Advanced Neutral Transcribing Instrument
No “Ifs” No “Ands” No “Buts”
Available April 2008 £1400 / £1900 inc Wraith.
The A.N.T.I. - innovation defined!
............the funk firm, ever closer 2008.
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