Тонармы — Kuzma 4Point

The 4Point is a pivoted tonearm from Kuzma Ltd of Slovenia, and the current version with these specifications is the 11 inch 4Point 11. It takes its name from its bearing of four points, and it is sold for about USD 11,470 to 11,708, with a two-year warranty that registration extends to five years. The original 4Point of 2008 had an effective mass of 13 g and weighed 1,650 g. The family now spans 9, 11 and 14 inch lengths, and the 4Point 14 has an effective length of 353 mm and needs a 12 inch base position.

Key specs that matter

Effective length is 280 mm, and the arm fits the standard 212 mm mounting distance of 9 inch arms. The spindle to horizontal bearing distance is 264 mm, overhang is 16 mm and offset is 19.5 degrees. Effective mass is 18 g, and the arm accepts cartridges of up to 35 g. Total weight is about 2,050 g. The armboard needs a 40 mm hole. The arm tube is conical and machined from solid aluminium, as on Kuzma's Air Line tangential arm, and the headshell is detachable, locked by a hexagonal system with one 2 mm Allen screw, with a spare headshell included.

Engineering and use context

The bearing uses four points, sapphire or ruby cups on steel pivots, with zero play. One pair handles vertical movement and the other horizontal, so the arm behaves like a double unipivot but without the rocking of a single point. The VTA tower can be adjusted during play to 0.01 mm, where one mark on the dial is 0.1 mm and a full turn 0.8 mm, over a range of 10 mm with a 1 mm scale. Azimuth is set with a worm drive and an Allen key in repeatable steps. Bias uses a sliding weight. The main counterweight works with a small fine weight, where one turn is about 0.1 g, and optional light and heavy weights cover cartridges from 0 to 32 g. Two separate, removable silicone troughs damp vertical and horizontal movement independently. The internal wiring is silver alloy, unbroken from the cartridge pins to a termination box, from which a 1.4 m cable with Eichmann bullet RCA plugs runs, and a second set of wires goes to Cardas RCA sockets. XLR, 5-pin, Crystal Cable, Cardas Clear and Kondo silver wiring are available as options.

Pairing

The high effective mass and generous cartridge weight limit suit heavy, low-compliance moving-coil cartridges, and the short mounting distance lets this longer arm fit turntables built for shorter arms.

Alternatives

The Kuzma 4Point 9 is the 9 inch version with an effective mass of 13 g and a 23 degree offset.