VERTERE ACOUSTICS CONFIRMS NEW REFERENCE TONEARM GEN III AT HIGH END MUNICH

On Thursday at the Vertere press conference at the High End Munich show, Touraj Moghaddam, Vertere’s founder and chief designer, gave a detailed description and explanation of the new third-generation of Vertere Reference Tonearm.

The press conference was shared with Karl Heinz Fink’s EPOS brand launch, which you can read about here.

At the press conference, Karl Heinz Fink, Touraj from Vertere and Mr Kato from Soulnote

VERTERE REFERENCE TONEARM GEN III

Some eleven years after the launch of the original Vertere Reference Tonearm the third generation brings additional flexibility, ease of use/fine-tuning and, Touraj tells us, improved performance.

Touraj introduces the new Vertere Reference Tonearm Gen III

Touraj says that the Vertere Reference Tonearm Gen III is ‘wholly engineered to give complete accuracy and certainty in cartridge setup’.

The Vertere Reference Tonearm has unique split geometry, where, in the vertical direction, the arm has a longer effective length than that in the horizontal direction. This split geometry is designed to ensure that the cartridge can track very low frequencies cut in mono and the higher stereo frequencies with absolute integrity. In addition, effective mass vertically and horizontally is different, allowing optimisation of both for performance.

The new Vertere Reference Tonearm Gen III

KEVLAR FIBRES

Several hundreds of micron-thick non-rotating Kevlar fibres provide the Vertical and Horizontal pivoting motion. The result, say Vertere, is ‘the first truly ‘noiseless’ and stiction-free tonearm bearing’.

This design has no noise-generating rotating or sliding components in the bearings. The counterweight assembly is fully articulated to regulate tracking weight when the record is warped – even with the slightest of up and down movements of the Tonearm.

RIGID, LIGHT AND NON RESONANT

Rigid, light and non‐resonant are keywords for tonearm tubes and headshells and titanium is the most suitable material. The arm tube is machined down to a mere 0.4mm in wall thickness on the reference tonearm, maximising rigidity to weight ratio. The sculpted head‐shell is then fuse-welded to the arm tube to behave as one piece.

The Tonearm is engraved, allowing precise setting or repeat setting of the additional sliding effective mass control/fine-tune tracking force adjustment. Anti-skate force is applied using a 30 micron thick non-resonant, frictionless silicone polymer strip.

Unique Transit Clamping System allows secure transportation keeping the arm/cartridge safe and perfectly setup. In addition, the UTCS ensures exact performance after shipment and reinstallation. The use of the clamp also assists with mounting the cartridge safely and precisely. The lift/lower mechanism is custom-built from solid stainless steel and has been precision engineered to ensure accurate cueing. Precise setting of VTA is made easy by a fine adjustment screw that’s additional to the main setting of arm pillar height.

If required, Azimuth adjustment correction is made by a side-mounted adjustment screw, while the arm mounting itself provides a very fine adjustment of azimuth.

VERTERE REFERENCE TONEARM GEN III HEAD SHELL LIGHT

The Tonearm cueing light, integrated into the head shell, is helpful when playing or setting up a cartridge. It discreetly and pleasingly illuminates the record grooves around the stylus contact point, making it easy to cue records precisely without disturbing the mood lighting. With its dedicated power supply, the light may be dimmed or switched off.

PULSE CABLE

Internal wiring is a special version of Vertere Hand-Built Pulse cable, in one continuous run from the cartridge tags to the exit cable connector at the Tonearm base. All connectors and contacts are custom made with three times the standard thickness of gold plating.

The reference tonearm comes with a second tungsten carbide loaded Counterweight to accommodate much heavier cartridges than standard. This heavier Counterweight also has extra screw‐on end caps to increase the weight further if required.

The Vertere Reference Tonearm Gen III and Vertere Mystic MC Cartridge

VERTERE REFERENCE TONEARM GEN III TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Type: Pivoted

Effective Length: 240mm Horizontal 263mm Vertical (Effectively)

Overhang: 17.5mm

Offset Angle: 22.9°

Head-Shell & Arm Tube: Titanium & Titanium – Fuse Welded

Fine Tracking Force Adjustment Weight: Titanium – 3.2g

Bearing Yoke Structure: Aluminium Alloy Body, Titanium Insert

Bearing Type: Non-Rotating microns-thick Kevlar thread Fibres

Counter Weight: Stainless (Standard) + End Discs, Stainless & Tungsten Carbide (Heavy) + End Discs, Articulated Triple Ball Races

Counter Weight System: Articulated – Three Ball Races

Internal Wiring: Special Hand-Built Pulse, Signal & LED Power Wiring

Connector: Proprietary Cartridge & Cable Connectors, Triple-thickness Gold Plated Contacts, Vertere 7-Way Tonearm Connector

Tonearm Cable: Special Pulse-HB Hand-built, Triple-thickness Gold Plated Contacts, Vertere HB Reference 23.95ct Gold/5 micron+

Queuing Light Power Supply: Dimmable – Battery Powered

Standard Counterweight (x1): 142g

Standard C/W Disc (x6): Each 7.6g

Heavy Counterweight Sleeve (x1): 83g

Tungsten Carbide C/W Insert (x1): 114g

Special C/W Disc (x4): Each 7.6g

Overall Weight (With Std C/W & x4 Discs): Approx. 627g

VERTERE REFERENCE TONEARM GEN III PRICE AND AVAILABILITY

The Vertere Reference Tonearm Gen III will be available in July, for £43,900, including the 1.65m HB Reference Tonearm cable.

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