Even so, we still chose to install an M4 allen bolt into the threaded hole in the rear of the thrust box, allowing really tiny, repeatable adjustments of tracking force, something that was to prove vital to achieving optimum performance. In order to help fix the setting on the bolt as well as stop it rattling, we placed a small block of foam rubber between the bolt and the rear of the thrust box: it doesn’t look ‘precision’ but it does the job and it’s not difficult to come up with a neater solution. Once the Nighthawk comes fully on line, I expect it to include just such an option. I’m also confident the final version will be rather more elegant than our expedient, albeit effective, solution.
Crucially, the other detail that is yet to be finalised for the flagship arm is the provision of the sliding saddle weight that allows you to adjust the arm’s effective mass, thus calculating the position required for the internal weight that is supplied with it. One aspect of set up that needed careful tuning was exactly that. The SUPATRAC arms are towards the lighter end of the medium mass range, especially in their 9” guise. The Opus 1 weighs in at 12.5g and has a compliance of 8cu, making the pairing with the 9” Nighthawk distinctly marginal. Although SUPATRAC doesn’t yet quote a figure for the arm’s effective mass, it’s nowhere near the 17g or so that would be optimum – hence the need for some additional mass. Unfortunately, the broader tonearm wand means that the Blackbird saddle can’t be used, but I had brought the weight itself with me: In a throwback moment, we simply BluTac-ed it to the top of the arm wand. Not exactly a ha’penny on the headshell, but close enough! What it did provide, just like the saddle weight on the Blackbird, was an easily adjustable load that allowed us to fine-tune the arm’s effective mass, a key aspect to optimising its performance. We actually tried the weight in five different positions before we zeroed in on what was, within the time constraints, the best performance balance – which is why the adjustability of the counterweight bars/auxiliary ‘bolt’ proved such a boon.
With initial set-up complete, so that both arms were dialled in and mounted on their own armboards, it was time for the auditioning to begin. With set up conducted on Friday, it left the whole weekend for some extensive comparative listening, covering not just jazz, rock and pop but a number of classical discs I’d brought along too.
Horses for courses…
It was immediately apparent just how different these two arms are: The Kuzma, all calm, confident stability, spatial coherence and a fully developed acoustic space, wrapped around the performers; the Nighthawk, all life, presence, vivacity, immediacy and vivid dynamics. The SUPATRAC couldn’t match the acoustic space, deep bass power and linearity, or harmonic sophistication of the Kuzma; but the 14” arm was in danger of sounding dull, sat-on and even sluggish in comparison to the Nighthawk. The Blackbird set new standards for the sense of uninhibited musical flow and dynamic tracking. The Nighthawk takes those qualities and adds additional body, bottom-end weight and authority to proceedings, all without diluting what makes the Blackbird such a musically involving and communicative performer. But what also became apparent was that the relative strengths of the two arms are not just musically dependent, they’re system dependent too.