Black Widow Tonearm - Infinity

[squeegy200]

This tonearm was mentioned in another thread. Rather than Hijack in respect to the thread creator, I thought I would create another discussion topic.

I was surprised when Dean_Martin and some others knew of this item. It was rare in its day and even more rare today. I've spied a few on eBay and was outbid on two occassions. But they rarely ever come up for auction. Carbon Fibre during the 70s & 80s was unheard of. Because of its low mass and antiresonant properties, I would think Carbon Fibre would be ideal for tonearm construction. But I don't see any of the modern arms utilizing this material.

Anyone have one? I'd love to get your impressions of its performance.

What was the background on this arm? It was the only one created by Infinity.

[dean_martin]

This tonearm was mentioned in another thread. Rather than Hijack in respect to the thread creator, I thought I would create another discussion topic.

I was surprised when Dean_Martin and some others knew of this item. It was rare in its day and even more rare today. I've spied a few on eBay and was outbid on two occassions. But they rarely ever come up for auction. Carbon Fibre during the 70s & 80s was unheard of. Because of its low mass and antiresonant properties, I would think Carbon Fibre would be ideal for tonearm construction. But I don't see any of the modern arms utilizing this material.

Anyone have one? I'd love to get your impressions of its performance.

What was the background on this arm? It was the only one created by Infinity.

I think I stumbled on some info on the Black Widow a couple of years ago on the web. I doubt I could even get back to my original source. But there are some pics and users over at www.vinylengine.com. I don't know much about it except that it was an esoteric piece and the comments I've read were complimentary. I did not recall that it's a carbon fibre arm.

Some of the new Pro-ject tables, the Xpression (I think there's a 1 & 2), use a new carbon fibre version of the Pro-Ject 9 tonearm. A couple of the new high-end Graham arms may be carbon fibre also. It seems to be catching on as of late. I don't know whether you can get the Pro-Ject arms seperately in the US. The US distributor is Sumiko.

[dean_martin]

Squeegy - I saw an Infinity Black Widow tone arm at Audio Atlanta yesterday! They had it in a glass case with a lot of other classic analog pieces including a Grace wood body tonearm.

The Black Widow looks like a precision surgical instrument in person.

[squeegy200]

I just saw a damaged one on eBay. Story behind it was the owner's 3 year old played in the listening area and broke the carbon fiber arm into three pieces. Everything else was still functional. That polished finish definitely looks surgical.

It was a tempting proposition DIY project considering the last bid was around $10 the last time I checked. .