Transrotor TRA 9 Flagship Series 9" Tonearm

The Transrotor TRA 9 is designed using it's fine mechanics not to put any stamp on music and enabling even extremely high-quality pickups to develop their full sonic potential.

Creating a tonearm tube free from resonance is of decisive importance. Therefore, the Transrotor design team decided on a two-part solution with a tapered part that is connected to the bearing block. At first it was planned to insert a second tube and attaching the headshell to the opposite side. If the tubes overlap they would then mutually attenuate one another. However, no standard tube with the extremely tight tolerances required for this application could be found on the market. That's why the front tonearm tube is cnc machined from a solid piece of aluminium.

But it's not only the different dimensions of the two tubes that minimize resonance. Transrotor's experience gained in building turntables made it possible to combine different aluminum alloys in such a way that they are optimally damped. But with a tonearm it's not just about vibration control, it's also about deriving it as quickly as possible. Therefore, the idea of gluing the two tubes was rejected. Thanks to the very low tolerances the two tubes touch each other over a large surface area and only need to be screw fixed.

The massive bearing block is designed completely flat on top. With this feature you are able to simply check the horizontal alignment of the arm by placing a spirit level during adjustment. Two threaded rods are used for sensitive height adjustment.

For easy height adjusting a parallelogram made of plexiglas is supplied with the tonearm and two threaded rods that are screwed into the corresponding threaded bushes. With the two bars the arm can be moved extremely sensitive up and down.

The counterweight is fine adjustable by means of turning a central positioned screw. The bearing force can be set precisely up to the second decimal. The chrome-plated brass weights can be exchanged for ones with different weights if necessary.

Anti-skating force is generated magnetically and fine adjustable. The headshell can be rotated for azimuth adjustment.

Extremely low breakaway forces and very little play are decisive for a tonearm bearing. As a result high-end Japanese steel bearings are used by Transrotor for horizontal guidance and ceramic bearings for vertical guidance. Both bearings are braced against each other to eliminate unwanted play.

For mounting the arm Transrotor offers two options: Standard type, a circular one with a diameter of 43 millimeters and a SME type, an elongated one that allows mounting on surfaces that are prepared for a SME tonearm.

Features

Material: Aluminum alloy, stainless steel, brass, ceramic, magnetic material, engineering plastics, silver, anodized aluminum, chrome, gold, Ruthenium.

Tonearm tube: Double tonearm tube made of 2 different aluminum alloys, pushed into each other, stiff and resonance-free.

Counterweights: Aluminum alloy with exchangeable brass weights (depending on the system weight).

Height adjustment: 2 screw-in adjustment screws raise the tonearm in parallel

Scating setting: Magnetically adjustable with a fine thread, center setting 1.8 p (grams) (red line).

Cabling: Pure silver cables (4x Seven Stream Van den Hul), oxygen-free insulation outside and inside with silicone hose, protected and damped, connections with silver solder, system connection cable lugs silver-plated.

Connection cable: Pure silver cable (same material as inner cable), oxygen-free insulation.

Connector: Straight Tac-5 to RCA or XLR, special highly conductive coated (WBT).

Compatible with all 9" SME bases manufactured by Transrotor.

Specifications

Effective length: 232,8mm, circa 9“

Distance of tonearm from pivot to spindle: 215mm

Overhang: 17,8mm

Offset angle: 23,66º

Zero point inside: 66mm

Zero point outside: 121mm

Effective Mass: 18g

Connection cable length: 130cm

Connection type: Straight Tac-5 to RCA or XLR

Cable material: Pure silver (Van den Hul)

Compatible with all 9" SME bases manufactured by Transrotor

Scope of delivery (depending on the model)

1x Van den Hul tonearm cable, 130cm, pure silver, Tac-5 to RCA or XLR)

2x Allen key

2x Height adjustment screws

1x Electrical tonearm scale

1x Parallelogram for horizontal adjustment

1x Gauge for hole spacing, center axis of the tonearm

1x Steel ruler, 30cm

1x Needle-nosed pliers for mounting the system plugs

Available finishes

Black, matt anodized.

Black/Chrome, the substructure is black, matt anodized. The tonearm is chrome-plated in high-gloss silver.

Black/Gold, the substructure of the tonearm is anodized in black. The tonearm and the upper structure are gold-plated.

Ruthenium, Ruthenium is a precious metal of the platinum group.