We first became aware of Austrian engineer Alexey Kornienkov a few years ago and were fascinated by his work. When you travel to hi-fi shows around the world every year, you tend to see a plethora of new tonearms & turntables. The great majority are what we call ‘me too products’, meaning that they are simply another version or interpretation of established designs that we are familiar with. A few new designs are innovative and exhibit new approaches or new technologies, however they are often very expensive and unproven. What caught our attention about Alexey was that he chose a very well-established design that has had much success in the past, but is now considered to be on the ‘vintage’ side of things and then re-imagined it using modern engineering principles and ‘thinking outside the box’ innovation. We met him at the Munich High End Show in 2022 where he explained his technical solutions and we knew we were in the presence of someone who will surely be one of the significant analog system designers of this generation.
The Korf TA-SF9R is based on the high-mass steel tube curved design favoured by the likes of Fidelity Research and Ikeda. The Korf design focused on three key design goals – strength, low resonances and quality of motion. The solutions implemented by Korf represent a complete re-thinking of this design. Rather than use a rolling bearing, the TA-SF9R uses a monolithic flexure pivot which eliminates bearing chatter completely and has absolutely no starting torque/stiction. It features a steel armtube with 0.5mm walls, widely spaced vertical hybrid ceramic bearings, clamping plinth mounts and magnetic antiskating among many new innovations. Quite frankly, the rigidity and quality of motion in this tonearm is unparalleled.
- Replaceable industry standard headshell
- Steel armtube
- Flexure pivot horizontal bearing
- Hybrid ceramic vertical bearings
- Drop-in replacement for a popular discontinued tonearm design
The result is a smooth, sophisticated yet dynamic sound that is immediately obvious for its transparency and quality. The Korf TA-SF9R tonearm is not only a modern incarnation of classic design – it’s a high performance bargain in modern terms. If you look at the measurement data in many of the critical performance areas, in order to obtain a tonearm that even approaches this level of performance, you need to make a significant financial investment in comparison to the Korf. This is a tonearm for those that appreciate elegant engineering design in the service of music. Release the flow and dynamics of your favourite record, a musical masterpiece.
Easy to Set Up and Use
Tonearm lift
- Industry Standard soft dampened.
- Height adjustable with a set screw.
Vertical adjustment
- Column clamp is tightened and released with 3mm hex key.
- VTA screw for repeatable adjustment (can be removed when not needed).
Antiskating setting wheel
- With numbers that correspond to downforce setting.
High performance headshell connector
- Clockwise to tigthen.
- Counterclockwise to release.
Azimuth adjustment
- Unscrew to adjust, tighten to set.
- There’s an azitmuth marker and scale.
Screw-on counterweight
- Rotate to adjust downforce.
- No tools needed. No set screws, no thumb, screws, no tight O-rings.
- Helpful 0.5 gram (quarter turn) marks.
- Additional counterweight simply slides in (or out).
Reviews
Stereophile, Michael Trei, 2024
The Korf arm has an impressive ability to strip away extraneous noise and fuzz around each instrument, leaving an uncanny sense of clarity and purity… Cedar Walton’s direct-to-disc album The Pentagon (East Wind EW-10002) demonstrates this effect clearly on the opening track, “Manteca.” Walton’s piano chords as he comps during Clifford Jordan’s solo were super clear and open, while Ray Mantilla’s congas came across with great tone and dynamism. This is not a fat, lush sound. It’s clear and quiet, providing an extra-clean window into the music.
"Through the Korf arm, music was fast, detailed, and of a huge soundstage (...) The Korf/Ortofon combination imbued the music with an exceptional coherence and flow (...)
"The Korf TA-SF9R 9-inch tonearm is a significant upgrade from my old Jelco. It’s remarkably smooth and graceful, like a Maserati or a lynx, and it extracts an extraordinary level of detail from vinyl. The sound is consistently dynamic and clear, removing any muddiness or confusion. It minimizes background noise around instruments, resulting in a wonderfully flowing, pure, and articulate presentation."
Schematics
Plinth cut-out for the Linn/JIS type mount. There’s a 28mm diameter hole and 3 mounting screws around it on a 38mm circle. The center of the main hole should be exactly 214mm from the spindle axis.
Plinth cut-out for the SME type mount allows for a lot more flexibility in placement. Most existing cut-outs can be used. If the longer axis of the oval cut-out points at the spindle, the SME type mount allows for +/-20mm adjustment in pivot to spindle distance.
Product Specifications
Type
Pivoting gimbal tonearm with removable headshell
Effective Length
229mm
Pivot to Spindle Distance
214mm
Offset Angle
22°
Effective Mass (without headshell)
18g
Effective Mass (with HS-AO2)
28g
Horizontal Axis Bearing
Flexure Pivot
Vertical Axis Bearings
Ceramic hybrid rolling bearings
Armtube Material
Stainless steel
Headshell Connector
Ortofon/SME/JIS type
Balance Type
Static
Minimum Headshell and Cartridge Combination Mass
10g
Maximum Headshell and Cartridge Combination Mass
35g
Cable Connector
5-pin MDIN (male)
Internal Wiring
Cardas 33 AWG
Mounting Types
JIS/Linn (minimum Ø28mm hole), SME
Mass (without headshell and mounting collar, max)
350g
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