The one thing that you have been unable to adjust on the Alphason (or any other fixed headshell arm) is azimuth. For years this might have been described as the forgotten parameter when it came to cartridge alignment, so prevalent had the rigidity über alles thinking become. As such – and partly for no other reason than familiarity – this isn’t a deal breaker for me. I suspect that for anybody thinking in terms of a one-time, set and forget tonearm, it won’t be overly concerning either.
However, even here Mr Knowles’ fertile imagination and apparently inexhaustible energy have been hard at work. This review covers the ‘standard’ arms, tonearms that mirror the overall structure and extend the thinking and execution of the original HR-100S. For many users/listeners, this is the most appealing and cost-effective choice. But there are already two options available. Any HR-200S can ordered as an AZ variant. Alphason says that this allows rotational adjustment of the entire armtube at the bearing housing, without any compromise in structural rigidity or performance. Cost is an additional £448.00 on top of the list price. In addition, he has developed a sophisticated, motorised and remote control VTA adjuster that can be retrofitted to any HR-200S. This allows arm height adjustment over a 20mm range in 0.05mm steps from the listening position. A digital readout of the height setting is an additional option, making this a genuinely repeatable parameter – but also opening the opportunity of noting individual settings for individual records for truly OCD individuals! This should be available by the end of April, although pricing is yet to be fixed. I’ll be reporting on both of these options in a follow-up piece – but for the moment I’m concentrating on the three ‘standard’ arms. They offer sufficient variation to keep me busy without including the ‘extras’!
Set up is a doddle. The mounting collar conforms to the Linn three-bolt/six hole standard, while the 210mm P2S dimension for the 9” and 291mm for the 12” conform to standard Linn/Löfgren B geometry offered as a standard option by many turntables. You might need to get a board cut for the 10.5” version but the template and requirements are also standard. Alphason supply three lengths of mounting bolt that thread into the blind holes on the collar. The bolts are M5, meaning that if you need longer bolts for a really thick armboard, they’re easily obtainable.
Lift the arm from its foam cocoon and the first thing you’ll notice is the silky smoothness of the bearings and light but rigid structure. I always remember the legendary Jimmy Hughes showing me the Breur Mk.8 arm: with no counterweight fitted, he held the mounting post and demonstrated the ease with which he could make the dangling headshell describe a perfect circle. Since then, the only arms I’ve seen match that performance, indicative of friction-free, zero-play bearings, are the Thales Simplicity and Statement – and now the Alphason HR-200S. Fit and finish of every part is exemplary and another step up over the original, which sometimes exhibited a slightly ‘artisan’ feel.
