SUPATRAC Blackbird Tonearm
$6,75000
Custom order item, not avalible for online purchase.
The Blackbird is a new turntable tone-arm with a revolutionary patented* 'Sideways Uni-Pivot Arm' (SUPA) bearing which outperforms traditional tone-arms. The sideways uni-pivot bearing directly opposes stylus drag at a single point of contact, eliminating microscopic play in the time axis and avoiding the scrubbing and roll movements which can degrade the performance of conventional uni-pivots. The Blackbird's SUPA bearing delivers unprecedented performance.
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REACTIVE DOWNFORCE
Loud passages increase stylus drag, producing oscillating vertical torque on normal tone-arms - the stylus can struggle to stay in good contact with the groove. The SUPA bearing pivots just below the record level so that bursts of stylus drag produce a slight downwards torque, just when it's needed.
That's how the Blackbird hugs the groove with tenacity during punchy dynamics. Torque-Reaction-Assisted Contact (TRAC) plays the hottest grooves with less distortion.
PERFECT TIMING
The Blackbird is designed to resist the pull of the cartridge with unyielding rigidity on the microscopic scale. Only by maintaining a perfect position in the groove's time axis can a cartridge reproduce the true shape and explosive energy of a recorded signal. By directly opposing the oscillating drag forces from the cartridge, the SUPA bearing avoids scrubbing, chatter and the resulting time errors which can frustrate the retrieval of music.UNIVERSAL SUPA
The Blackbird is designed to be lightweight and stable, fitting almost any turntable including classics like Linn, Technics, Garrard, Rega and many more. It can be matched with high-compliance cartridges due to its low inertia, and it comes with a mass adaptor to keep low-compliance cartridges under control too, making it compatible with the broadest range of cartridges from Shures to Miyajima Monos.ARM TUBE
The Blackbird's arm tube is made of pultruded carbon-fibre. The headshell area is reinforced with aluminium and the tube cavity is filled with a damping foam. The arm tube is clamped firmly to the thrust box with machine screws and steel nuts for high rigidity. The arm forms an exceptionally inflexible and dead structure with tennis-racquet-class strength-to-weight ratio.