Reed 5T Tonearm

Reed 5T is our first appearance in the tangential tonearm domain. Featuring unique design, innovative technological solutions and high quality, and dedicated to a true audio passionate, it is one of the most advanced tonearms we have ever made.

Reed 5T technically is a tangentially tracking pivoted tonearm. It’s working principle is based on Thales’ theorem (if the center of a triangle’s circumcircle lies on the triangle then the triangle is right, and the center of its circumcircle lies on its hypotenuse) and the rule, that given three non-collinear points, it is possible to draw only one circle that has finite radius and passes through all three. (Fig. 1)

Figure 1

P1, O1, P3 – Thales’ semicircle,
Angles P1-A1-P3, P1-A2-P3, P1-A3-P3 are 90 degrees each,
Segments A1B1 = A2B2= A3B3 represent length of a tonearm,
B – Tonearm vertical axis,
P2 represents a center of circle, drawn through three points – B1,B2 and B3 (tonearm rotation axis),
P3 – Linear Sensor Array,
BP3 – Laser beam.

Arm tube suspension system is similar to one used in Reed 2G tonearm, and the tonearm’s turning part is based on low noise thrust-sleeve bearing. For angular rotation of tonearm we designed and built limited rotation sectional torque motor. Tonearm’s position is controlled by laser and linear sensor array.

Reed 5T has user-replaceable arm tube – feature, which allows to change tonearm’s effective mass yourself. Tonearm also has VTA and azimuth adjustments.

Reed 5T has following advantages if compared with pivot tonearms:

Smaller moment of inertia,
No need for anti-skating mechanism,
Max tracking error is +/- 5 Minute of Angle (MOA). (Figure 2). Pivot tonearms usually have max tracking errors up to 1.5 deg.