Тонармы — Reed Reed 3P 9.5"

The Reed 3P 9.5-inch is the short version of the 3P, a hand-built tonearm from Reed in the Kaunas district of Lithuania that combines a wooden armwand with stainless steel and aluminium parts. The same arm is made in 10.5 and 12 inch lengths. A US price list begins the 3P at USD 7,545, with the wand offered there in cocobolo or ebony, a yoke in satin palladium or black, and a 1.25 m copper cable ending in KEIL RCA plugs.

Key specs that matter

For 9.5 inches Reed specifies 205.5 mm as the mounting distance, while the spindle lies 223 mm from the pivot. Offset reaches 22.9 degrees and overhang is 17 mm. This length gives the lowest effective mass figures in the 3P family - 8 g with a teak wand in its light or dark shade, 10 g with wenge, and 12 g with either Macassar ebony or cocobolo. On the factory list the metal parts can be finished in palladium, seashell white, black, or gold with a matte or a glossy surface.

Engineering and use context

Reed describes the bearing as gimbal in form but unipivot in behaviour. It relies on three pivot points, and magnets stabilise the vertical and horizontal axes, which gives the rigidity of a gimbal with friction close to that of a single-point bearing. Several settings can be changed during playback, including fine VTA, azimuth and anti-skating. When azimuth is turned, the cartridge pivots around its own stylus tip, so the other alignment values stay where they were set. The anti-skating system is magnetic and traces back to the Reed Mag prototype of 2011. Reed selects woods for damping behaviour it describes as close to an exponential function, a choice it made after trying other wand materials and bearing layouts. Internal wiring is assembled without solder and comes from Stereo-Lux Musikanlagen. Triukas brought a background in acoustic engineering to the design.

Pairing

The low effective mass at this length makes the short 3P a candidate for high compliance moving magnet cartridges, with ebony or cocobolo raising the mass for firmer suspensions. Reed recommends a combined resonance near 10 Hz and keeps a window of 8 to 12 Hz. A turntable needs an armboard cut for this pivot position, and the on-the-fly VTA control helps when playing pressings of different thickness.

Alternatives

The Reed 2G in the 9.5-inch length has the same geometry but uses thrust rotation and thrust pivot bearings with a wand that unplugs at a LEMO connector.