Vertere stunned the world with its astonishingly resolute and alarmingly expensive Reference Tonearm last year, this year its creator Touraj Moghaddam has managed to deliver an arm at the other end of the scale. The Vertere SG-1 will be approximately £1,500 without arm cable (starting at £200 for D-Fi) and like its stablemate takes a different approach to bearing design. The SG-1 looks, and we’re told, feels like a uni-pivot but has what Touraj calls a triple point articulated bearing (TPA). This is not a point in a cone as is usually the case but a point in a ring of three silicon nitride precision balls. The reasoning behind it being that a point interface can never be perfect, there is always some scope for movement however small. The TPA design is designed to eliminate that so-called “chatter” and thus be better able to trace the tiny modulations in the groove.
The SG-1 has a wrap wound carbon fibre arm tube, alloy headshell and bearing yoke, decoupled stainless counterweight and proprietary internal wiring. A release date has not yet been set but it should be available soon.
