Тонармы — Reed REED 2B 12"

The REED 2B 12-inch Wenge is the longest version of the 2B tonearm from Reed, the Lithuanian maker of gimbal-pivoted arms run by founder Vidmantas Triukas, here fitted with an armwand of wenge wood. Reed supplies the 2B fully assembled, so the buyer only has to fix it to the deck and then adjust arm height, downforce, azimuth and bias. In Europe the base 2B in matte white aluminium was listed at EUR 3,450 and the 12 inch length at EUR 3,700, with a fully equipped arm at about EUR 4,500, while US pricing started at USD 4,995.

Key specs that matter

For this 12 inch length, the maker gives a mounting distance of 295.6 mm, the same as the pivot to spindle figure, together with an overhang of 13.4 mm and an offset angle of 17.6 degrees. With the wenge armwand the effective mass is 14 g. Other wood choices shift that value - teak in light or dark versions brings it down to 12 g, and Macassar ebony or cocobolo raise it to 18 g. The 2B accepts heavy cartridges of up to 35 g. Buyers can order the metalwork in black or in a seashell white finish.

Engineering and use context

The arm rides on a set of four ceramic ball bearings made to high precision. Two of them govern the up and down motion of the arm, the remaining two its sideways rotation, and one of those is set inside the shaft to keep the assembly stable. Anti-skating works by magnetic repulsion through two separate set screws, which lets the owner give different correction near the lead-in and near the run-out groove, with adjustment possible even during play. Arm height, and with it vertical tracking angle, is set by loosening a screw on the mounting collar and turning an adjustment screw in either direction. For azimuth the wand is rotated on its own axis and locked by set screws, and the headshell has a screw of its own for fine correction. Fully equipped versions add wiring of cryogenically treated copper or silver ending in WBT silver RCA plugs. Each arm ships in a box with a certificate, a manual and an acrylic mounting template.

Pairing

A deck chosen for this arm must accept a 12 inch pivot position, and the effective mass of the wenge wand is the figure to check against the compliance of the chosen cartridge. The high cartridge weight limit leaves space for heavy moving coil bodies or a cartridge fitted with a weight.

Alternatives

The Reed 2G is another Reed tonearm, built with a cardanic bearing, a wand that changes through a LEMO connector and swappable headshells.