I switched the hardware first in the 11” 4Point/Etna Lambda SL pairing, and then in the Blackbird/Etna Lambda. In both cases the titanium hardware brought similar sonic and musical gains, albeit to a slightly diminished extent. So yes, the 14” arm with the Fuuga displays the greatest improvement and does so most obviously, but the gains in both the other cases were definitely worthwhile, even if not quite as startling. But perhaps the most interesting switch of all was the bolts securing a Kuzma CAR-40 cartridge in a 10.5″ VPI JMW tonearm – the original aluminium model mounted on a heavily updated HW-19, running DNM amps and a pair of early Avantgarde Trios. The owner looked a little more than just askance as the mooted upgrade transpired to be nothing more than a pair of tiny allen bolts (with matching titanium washers), but that look quickly changed to astonishment, followed by swiftly by a silly grin, once the stylus hit the groove. This is no reviewer system or writer looking for a story. This is a real world situation with a listener who is far more interested in the music produced by his system than the system itself. The mere fact that the benefits are so audible is surprising. Their extent is actually quite shocking – especially when you put it in the context of relative expenditure. Never less than seriously positive, the impact of swapping out steel or stainless steel hardware for titanium fixings goes well beyond the frosting on the cherry on the icing of the cake. With the aluminium bodied Etnas it WAS the cherry: in the case of the CAR-40 and the Fuuga it was the icing AND the cherry!
The Big Easy…
I’m sure I’m not the first person to discover titanium fixing bolts for cartridges. But given the audiophile world’d propensity to forget hard-learnt lessons, before discovering them all over again, I make no apology for that. This is one of those stupidly simple and affordable upgrades that make you wonder why we didn’t adopt it years ago? One answer of course is the increased access to what used to be seriously exotic hardware. These days, the low cost and ready availability of titanium bolts makes their use in tonearm applications an absolute no-brainer. It takes (very) little money, a little patience and a little care, but substituting titanium bolts (and nuts/washers) for existing steel or stainless steel hardware is ultimately as simple as it is effective. As those nice people at Nike are so fond of saying – Just Do It!*
* But make sure that you do it right: anti-seize compound isn’t optional – it is essential. Secure your cartridge using titanium bolts without anti-seize or CopaSlip and there’s a very real chance that cartridge will never move (or be removed) again…
