Brand: Audio Note

Model Name/Number: TT3/3 arm/ PSU4

Price (RRP): £18000

Choice Hifi Price: £9850

Product Information:

Drive System

 High mass torque without any of the usual ‘high mass platter’ energy storage problems.

Very light, highly inert platter made from Lexan, which has virtually no reflective properties nor any resonance storage problems.

Rubber belt driving the platter around its outside rim.

3 immensely powerful motors, whose speed is “locked” together by the master control unit’s digitally synthesised frequency.

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This combination provides a platform with levels of stability and torque which high mass turntables can only dream of! When the high mass stored in the motors provides torque to drive the light, inert platter, the energy is focused as rotation, nothing else, and the best of both worlds is achieved.

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Suspension System

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Three point suspended design, centred at the bearing, which is also the epicentre of the motors’ inertia. This completely removes the most common problem in suspended turntables, where the motors and suspension are misaligned in relation to each other and as a result, the platter is vacillating constantly between the centre of the drive system and the centre of the suspension.

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The sub chassis is designed with 3 arms. One has the tonearm in the standard position on the far right, the other two hold mass balancing weights, which provide an exact equivalent of the combined arm / cartridge mass, thus loading each suspension tower equally.

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Tonearm Choice

The TT-Three is supplied with the arm board cut for our own ‘/II’ 9″ tonearms. This is the only way we supply the TT-Three, and we do not offer any other arm boards to fit the inferior offerings from other manufacturers. Our tonearms are the perfect choice for the TT-Three, so why use anything else?!

When we decided to develop a new range of budget to mid priced tonearms to replace our long lived and loved ARM-One, Two and Three,  we obviously had high hopes and expectations for the new design. We are extremely pleased to announce that the new Version II models have exceeded even our high standards. Ladies and Gentlemen, we give you the Audio Note (UK) ARM-Three/II.

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The Arm

​We needed an arm that could be accommodated by not only our own range of turntables, but also by the many designs that were cut for the classic single hole  ‘Rega’ mounting that has dominated the industry for so many years. Yet at the same time, we needed something that would truly push the boundaries of performance, design and quality, not only from a build perspective but also from the vitally important sound quality perspective also. This would require a complete rethink of many of the design criteria, and a level of engineering precision and quality that is rarely seen in the world of HiFi.

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Precision Engineering

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All of the new arms are manufactured in a state of the art machining facility located in Austria. We don’t use parts manufactured by any other company for our new arms; every single piece is custom designed and manufactured by us and for us. This was the only way we could guarantee to get the results we were aiming for. Many people thought we were crazy to contemplate such an undertaking, especially considering the relatively modest prices we wanted to offer the new arms for, but such things have never worried us in the past, so why should they now! It took us over a year of painstaking prototyping, testing, redesigning and re-prototyping to finalise the design… and the results truly astonishing.

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Tapered Armtube

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The new arms all share the same construction, based around an armtube that is machined from a single billet of high-grade aluminium. It is tapered both internally and externally, which reduces overall mass and also increases stiffness. The structural rigidity of this design allows the new arms to work with almost any design of cartridge, regardless of weight or compliance. From the lightest tracking moving magnet right up to our own IO models, the new arms allow the cartridge to track superbly, minimising noise and maximising music.

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Bias adjustment is achieved via the classic ‘falling weight’ method. We found this to be by far the most easy to adjust and reliable method of bias adjustment.

The vertical and horizontal bearings are not the usual ‘ball racer’ type. Instead we use a rarely seen ‘captured unipivot’ arrangement,  which provides significantly superior performance to any conventional arrangement.

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As discussed above, we chose to stay with the mounting system used on our earlier generation of arms. But for the new models, we also introduced a method of adjusting the arm height via a threaded collar and locking nut, allowing the stylus rake angle to be precisely adjusted.

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Silver inside and out

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The Arm Three/II uses our own high purity Silver Litz wire inside the armtube, and our own AN-Vx silver cable from the arm base to the phono plugs.

The Power Supply

The new TT3 range of power supplies. Audio Note (UK) has concentrated a great deal of time and energy on developing a set of core fundamentals within the new TT3 PSU, in doing so delivering sheer musicality, believability and immediacy.

The power supply 1 offers an excellent level of musical engagement without compromise of the component quality. 0.5W Tantalum Resistors and Audio Note Electrolytic capacitors are used throughout. The special CODE, analogue modules and output stages are all coded, modelled and designed in-house.

The power supply 2 features improved local power supply regulation for the signal generator, improvements to the clock line and the output stage offering great improvements in refinement, tonal density, palette and definition over the power supply 1.

The power supply 3 is a unique product in every respect, achieving the best sonic results. A superior level of control is achieved by using a specifically designed analogue computer, unique analogue oscillators and fully discrete component design, from start to finish.

The discrete component output stage offers far more freedom to achieve a perfect balance both electronically and sonically achieving optimal damping and energy transfer.

Age: 2 Years

Condition: 9/10

Voltage: N/A

Finish/Colour: Black

Packaging? Yes

Accessories? N/A

Item Location: In Stock

Status: Second Hand