New Zealand made tonearm

[Gary.M]

I'm not sure if it has been reported here, but Simon Brown has developed "The Wand" tonearm and it is a current finalist in the NZ "Best Awards"

http://bestawards.co.nz/entries/product/category/consumer/the-wand-tonearm/

[Michael Jones]

Simon's been working on this for some time. It certainly looks good.

[Michael Wong]

Ditto.

Is that the arm offered for review months(years ?) ago ?

[Michael Jones]

Simon Brown's arm has been in development for a couple of years. It's about ready for the real world, so Simon told me last time I spoke to him.

[Owen Young]

Looks like it is made from Pure Audio offcuts, Gary :D

[RexJ]

... and a kilwell fishing rod.

[Michael Wong]

It's times like this I wish I had a TT that allowed for easy swapping of arms and cartridges.

:(

[omegaspeedy]

Good on the guy. It looks like a nice simple design and is interesting. I haven't heard much about Simon Brown and his designs, I wonder which company he is involved with?

[paul300b]

Wow! I want one!
To be ultra picky, I don't like the thin threaded base though. Review please!:)

[wizard]

From
http://www.melbourneaudioclub.org.au/gm2011.htm

In the audio world innovative design, precision engineering and high performance are terms not commonly associated with affordability. Simon’s Wand tone arm would appear to be an exception to the rule.

Its unusual appearance makes sense when explained by the designer. The carbon fibre arm though very light is much wider than the norm because rigidity increases significantly with diameter. Its counterweight sits as close as possible to the pivot in order to reduce angular momentum. All in all it’s a mean machine.

Simon’s presentation was excellent though being a tad softly spoken we realised all too late we should’ve provided a microphone so members further back in the room could hear him clearly. The evening's Dali speakers - the best John C. had available in the shop that day - did many very good things, especially with instruments but tended to be a little muted on vocals. Never-the-less it was abundantly clear the combination of the Wand and Grado Gold MM cartridge, mounted on a basic Rega Planar TT, was very detailed and musical.

Included with the arm kit is a customised laser cut steel protractor enabling precise installation plus vertical and horizontal alignments. It looks a bit like a huge flat spanner but is a precision tool with which 90% of the usual painstaking set up procedure can be accomplished quickly and accurately.

At $600 NZ plus postage we believe Simons has more than achieved his stated objective. The Wand arm plus its very useful accessories are certainly value for money. So much so that our beloved president is seriously considering purchasing one as a backup for his FR 12.

Simon’s LP's plus those brought by members covered a diverse range and there were many occasions when the audience was entranced by the music. Such was their enjoyment, later in the evening a couple of the jazz related offerings were actually clapped when they finished! Thank you Simon for a memorable evening.

James Hill

[Owen Young]

It's times like this I wish I had a TT that allowed for easy swapping of arms and cartridges.
Just thread a golf ball on the bott, should do the trick :D

[wizard]

http://www.gumboot.com/cgi-bin/ezshop/shop/2052?category=19&categorygo.x=1

Turntable Upgrades & The Wand Tonearm

"The Wand"TM Tonearm had it's first public outing at the Melbourne Audio Club in March 2011. It is now for sale!
For a report from the Melbourne Audio Club see; http://www.melbourneaudioclub.org.au/gm2011.htm#mar11

We are offeri Plat-Tonic acrylic platters to upgrade existing turntables, plus belts and pulleys to drive them.
We also have Motor-Rotor to upgrade the drive system of many existing synchronous motor turntables.

The Wand Unipivot Tonearm TM

The Wand Unipivot Tonearm TM Unipivot Tonearm - Musical magic! more...


Big diameter (22mm) carbon-fibre tube.
Drop in replacement for Rega geometry arms
Medium mass (12.5g) suits most cartridges
Fitted with Cardas wire and plugs. (also see; short lead / no plugs option for terminating at Turntable)
Ease of installation enabling max. performance

NZD $675.00

[Simon Brown]

Thanks for your comments about my arm.
A belated reply to a few of the questions above,
-Yes, it's been longer in gestation than I'd like. But it takes a lot of work to make something profoundly simple!
-To pick up on Michaels comments about would be great to able to swap arms /cartridges easily. I've found it's an unexpected advantage of having a unipivot arm with a number of Wands (pun intended) that you can swap in <30s. (I've had up to four lined up in a row...).
-I've also gone to a lot of trouble to make the installation quick & effective. I'm intending to put it on YouTube eventually. (I've also got dedicated mounting plates for Rega and old SME cutouts)
-Yes, the main spindle (Threaded base) is less substanital looking than the rest of the arm. But this is the base model of a two or three model range. The next model up will have more chunky mounting & spindle, damped cueing arm and perhaps on-the-fly VTA adjust. I'm also considering a damping trough. Any thoughts guys about what are nice to haves?
Cheers
Simon Brown (design build listen)

[coleus]

Hi Simon , thanks for taking the time to chat re your designs , as far as the base model goes I can echo what has been said with the threaded base , if this had a collar or a larger more chunky nut it would look better , also , I'm not sure how easy you find dropping it onto the record for some the lack of a "normal" finger lift is a little off putting . Do you have these for sale now ? I'm kinda interested for my Rega , do you have a demo ?

[Simon Brown]

Yes, arms are on sale now.
I actually have one mounted on an old Rega Planar 3 for demo purposes. I'll be bringing it up to Wellington later in the year. (Was up last weekend).
For now I've been encouraging people to remember that they can effectively use their credit cards to get a month risk free trial.
But I appreciate it is a bit of an ask, till reviews / word of mouth get out (I'm sending an arm to a UK magazine next week).

The 'integrated' finger lift is partly inspired by visiting your esteeded Editor a few years ago and attempting to queue his unipivot (VPI Scout, Mike?) and hating the experience as it wobbled all over the place. The Wand is thus constrained a sideways to only have a few degrees slop. The tip queueing position on The Wand is very ergonomic when you sit the side of your index finger under it (gripping doesn't work well)
But I agree that if you've got a shaky hand you probably need the next model up with the damped queuing lift.
The idea of the base model was that it the stripped back 'enthusiast' model that gave absolutely maximum bang for buck. Super-arm performance for not much more than a Rega arm.

[Michael Jones]

Good memory, Simon. It was the VPI Scout with its wobbly unipivot tonearm.

[Simon Brown]

Good memory?
It was a deeply traumatic experience....it's etched into my sensitive engineers soul.....

[coleus]

Thanks Simon , will start saving

[coleus]

Simon has kindly lent me a prototype Wand to try , and I have to say I'm impressed , a great step up from my RB300 with mods , running on Rega P25 with ZU103R.
The sound is impressive almost as much as the lack of it , seems to take some of the rubbish away , great bass and a big wide soundstage.
Set up was what made it for me , I'm a bit of a noob when it comes to DIY turntable-ing , and this was the first time I had changed out an arm , with his protractor/template tool it's all made easy for someone exactly like me , not to mention easy to follow instructions , I have played around quite a bit now , and I think I could get it set-up pretty quickly.
Had reservations about no finger lift , this is a non issue, as lifting on and off from the front is actually easier and very easy to get used to. Also with regards the threaded base, on the P25 there was no thread showing as in the photos in the early part of this thread , a very tidy install.

Sounds great , looks good :o)

[Des W]

Morning Col,

I agree on the No finger lift--at first you think duhhh-- but it becomes the non issue you mention-after all the second best Tonearm in the World has no finger lift either!

Good to see a local made product garnering kudos- good one!

Des

[Owen Young]

Call me old fashioned but I do like a damped lift/lower cueing mechanism.

Esp if (i)you've had a drink or two (ii)eyesight not so good on late nights (iii)you want to keep your precious cartridge in good health ;)

[Jon]

If you want to hear it in either the Black Prince (Slate mounted Garrard 401) or Jet (custom slate mounted Lenco build), come round.

I have an OL Illustrious MK2 and a Trans-fi Terminator for (completely unfair) comparison!

[Owen Young]

A brave man. That could be dangerous, Jon.

[Jon]

Live a little!

Also like to hear how it sounds - home grown product, etc, etc!

[gidion27]

Hi coleus

Do you still like the Wand? Am asking because I am interested in the wand but have not seen a long term user report on the quality of the Wand. On first sight it looks great...

Cheers
G

[coleus]

Hey there Gideon ,yup I'm 6 or more months in on the Wand and I'm not going back or looking for anything else , a fantastic unit , certainly a step up from where I was , I did live a little and tried the unit on Jon's "Black Prince" which is a slate plinthed Garrard 401 , he said it matched or bettered the Originlive Silver arm , which is twice the price and voted design of the decade by HIfi world , there are some great reviews out there on the Wand also.
I dont know what more I can say about how great the Wand is , for the money you cant buy better.
Live a little and buy it.

[gidion27]

Thank you for the update. I also got in contact with Simon. He provided me with enough information.

Still slightly nerveous about the installation of the arm. Having said that the instructions are not bad at all.

Cheers G

[Simon Brown]

Hey there Gideon ,yup I'm 6 or more months in on the Wand and I'm not going back or looking for anything else , a fantastic unit , certainly a step up from where I was , I did live a little and tried the unit on Jon's "Black Prince" which is a slate plinthed Garrard 401 , he said it matched or bettered the Originlive Silver arm , which is twice the price and voted design of the decade by HIfi world , there are some great reviews out there on the Wand also.
I dont know what more I can say about how great the Wand is , for the money you cant buy better.
Live a little and buy it.

Thanks Coleus,
I've had pretty good response from a good mix of customers around the world. Especially after some good magazine reviews. (Including a German customer comparing it to his Dynavector and Triplanar arms)
I've now got dedicated mounting plates for Technics SL 1200 /1500 family turntables as well as existing SME and Rega style mounts.
Lenco L75s seem a great match and the interest has encouraged me to produce a dedicated set of parts to aid that.
Cheers
Simon

[coleus]

Hi gideon , what would you be mounting the Wand on , happy to be of help if I can

[gidion27]

Hi Guys,

I have A Rega p3-24 with Rega Exact Cartridge and might take you up on the offer of assistance if need be:)

Will have to wait on next pay day and than pull the trigger on this one.

Cheers G

[coleus]

No worries , I installed it on a P25 and it was pretty straight forward , just drop me a PM anytime ,