TransFi Audio "Terminator" T3Pro Linear Tracking Tonearm. Oct 2013 The "Terminator" is a linear tracking tonearm, made in the UK at the time of my purchase, by Vic Patacchiola, under his company name of TransFi Audio. The design is based on a principle developed by Poul Ladegaard in Denmark, which Vic refined and developed to create his product. Vic has since retired, but in 2018 manufacture of the arm was taken on by Andrey Shislo in Russia, he has since added his own take on some of the design details. His website is https://www.musicfromvinyl.shop/#home I've always been concerned about the miss tracking of traditional pivot arms. The only places the stylus is running truly tangential in the record grove, is at the two null points, everywhere else across the record, there is a tracking error of varying severity. When a record master is "cut" it's produced on a machine that runs across the blank in a linear path, so it makes sense to play the final product in the same way. Linear tracking arms, whether mechanical or air powered have there own issues to overcome, the Terminator has a novel approach which eliminates many of them. The horizontal movement is achieved by mounting the short arm, or "Wand" on a "Slider" which floats on a cushion of air, supplied by a low pressure fish tank pump. The vertical movement is achieved with a couple of pin point bearings, mounted in the Wand. These run in a pair of "V" blocks mounted underneath the Slider. This split of the horizontal and vertical movement, allows a simple solution for each element, requiring no ball race, or high air pressure. This engineering simplicity, and the obvious high quality of the build, is what attracted me to the product in the first place. This picture explains the basic parts of the T3Pro variant of the Terminator. Note the half "Straps" on the slider, supporting the wand and the direction of the slots in the "Mounting Plate". Also note the "Level Adjusters" and the barely visible "VTA Scale". (Vertical Tracking Angle). After using the product for a few weeks, during which time, it worked extremely well, I added a few tweaks which I think are improvements. I was bouncing ideas back and forth with Vic at TransFi Audio around this time, Vic was very willing to discuss his ideas and look at any alternatives I might have to offer, great guy and a serious HiFi enthusiast! Some of my simple tweaks were adopted by Vic, so don't be surprised if they look familiar. First, I never liked the single pillar mounting method, which is more about compatibility with the maximum number of decks, rather than the most effective mounting method. Also, I didn't like the orientation of the slots in the Mounting Plate, which again focused on mounting compatibility, rather than useful adjustment for the Wand/Cartridge effective length. These compromises are fueled by comercial requirements, by which I'm not constrained. I approached these issues by contacting Vic at Transfi who sympathized with what I was saying. He produced a prototype mounting plate for me, with its mounting slots rotated 90 deg. I made a hardwood mounting block of the correct height, from an end grain chopping board and bolted the arm into the top of my purpose made Turntable, through this. For the barely legible VTA scale, I just filled the engraved markings roughly with Black paint and polished off the surplus wet paint with a wood block wrapped in some news paper. I applied a little white spirit to the paper (barely damp not wet) to help remove the last of the paint and give a polished finish. The metal Level Adjusting screws were biting into the Aluminium on the VTA adjusting plate and leaving marks. I got round this by cutting the dome off a Nylon Dome Nut and pushing it on to the end of the bolt. Here they are installed, it worked very well. The idea of the half Straps, straddling the slider in opposite orientation, to balance out their weight (Top pair) didn't quite sit right with me, so I again contacted Vic at TransFi. It turned out he'd made the Straps from full square section and had experimented with various shapes and suspensions during development. He had a couple of full squares going spare, which he let me have (Lower pair). Users, like myself, had reported a bit of Chatter induced distortion, with metal pivots running in the Aluminium "V". We discussed various options, including the use of Nylon Pivot Bolts or Nylon "V" blocks for the metal pins to run in. This is where my version took a different direction to Vics, he went with Nylon Pins, which is easier to mass produce. I decided to keep the Metal pivot pins and experiment with different materials to form the "V" they sit in. I removed some of the material at the bottom of the "V" in the square extrusion and glued in some 1.5mm thick Silicon, to create the required profile. The pins sat well in the soft Silicon and didn't slide out of the "V" when I got a bit enthusiastic, moving the slider to its resting position. Unfortunately this material over damped things and took out some of the bass. Ultimately, I went with Nylon 6, which is just a bit softer than the common Nylon 66 and a lot better than Silicon or some of the other materials I tried. This combination of metal pins running on Nylon 6 seemed better than anything else and if you apply hard finger pressure to the Pivot Pins, they make small depressions in the Nylon, which prevents the pins from moving about in the "V". I decided to run with this. Again, taking my own path, I glued some M3 threaded brass inserts onto metal grub screws, allowing finger adjustment of the Pivot height/Azimuth, instead of having to use an Allen Key. The Hex Allen socket is still accessible through the insert, should the need arise. Play existed in the threads of the Pins/Wand and allowed the pins to wobble slightly, I smeared some "Gorilla" Heavy duty grab adhesive, into the threads along one side of the pins. I let this dry for a full 24 hours before screwing the Pins into the Wand. This adhesive is still flexible when set, the fit was now tight, the pins mounted rigidly and there was an anti rotation, or lock nut effect from the adhesive. I glued the Straps to the Slider, aided by a printed alignment guage, making sure the Wand was suspended at perfect right angles to the Slider/Manifold. I noticed another owner had inserted a spirit bubble into his wand, to aid adjustment of VTA and Azimuth. I liked that! The holes in the Wand are 8mm diameter and I happened to have a set of assorted spirit bubbles, one of which was 8mm, so in it went. I found an exactly level point on my worktop, confirmed using several different level guages and then fixed the cartridge mounting face against this surface. The bubble guage was inserted into its mounting hole and tilted till level, then glued to fix it in this position. A close up, showing the bubble has been calibrated to the Cartridge mounting face. The stock 25mm dia brass weights have an M4 clearance hole and M3 securing bolt, so they move around and off centre when being adjusted, I decided to make my own counterbalance weights. Made from 20mm dia brass discs, which are easily sourced on the internet. I purchased two each of 3mm/2mm/1.5mm/1mm thickness. The 3mm thick versions, I threaded M3 to accept the adjusting screw, which removes the need for the stock threaded aliminium clamping piece. The other thicknesses I gave a 3mm through hole. The weights hang under the Wand and I used a 12mm x 1mm Nylon washer to space the weights off the Wand. An M3 Nylon fixing screw, similar to the stock pivot screws, is inserted from above. The Nylon contact, both sides of the Wand, creates some degree of isolation and allows the weight stack to run smoothly in the Wand when adjusting. This arrangement allows easy and precise adjustment of the counterweights from above, without the need for tools. For my AT33PTG II cartridge, I require a counter weight of about 12g so a 3mm + 2mm thickness should do the trick. Jan 2025 Arm Wiring/Dressing and Mounting Plate This is very important and care has to be taken, if the Arm is to perform at its best. I hadn't used the Terminator deck for several years and it sat in the attic, mainly due to my frustration with the wiring of the Wand and drag issues. I just never felt it was performing optimally and went back to using a pivoting Arm. At this point in time, I had run out of projects, so I decided to resurrect the Terminator, (it sounds like a line from a movie) and have one last attempt at sorting it out. I hate the Silk covered Litz wire being used for this purpose! It's not very flexible and kinks very easily, once kinked it will never straighten or smooth out properly. Much of the available Silver wire, coated in a clear PTFE (Teflon) jacket, has a thick layer of PTFE, making it a large diameter and relatively stiff. I eventually sourced some tonearm wire suitable for the job, from a seller in Portugal. Its very thin and very flexible: 36AWG Silver plated OFC Copper. x7 strands of 0.05mm dia wire inside a PTFE jacket. The OD of the insulating jacket is only 0.28mm. Its very easy to strip this wire, put a strand on a flat surface and lay a scalpel blade on top, applying light pressure at the distance you want to strip and just slide off the jacket with the blade. It solders really well and cleanly. Its not a thick jacket like some I mentioned, which makes it very flexible. It comes in all the colours, so I ordered 600mm of Red/Green/White/Blue, I don't use a ground wire, like with the screening of cables, I only use one if there is an issue. To explain how I dressed the wire I'll start at the cartridge end and walk you through its path. Ok, so I didn't fix the wire to the Wand in any way, it just runs from the back of the Cartridge Pins and up through the hole in the Wand, nearest the pivoting centre. This is where any drag will have least effect, due to it having the lowest mechanical advantage. Note that I rounded off the entry/exit of this hole, to avoid damaging the insulation where the wires make contact. The wires then run up to the top of the Slider, centrally between the Straps, the wires forming a natural arc. I glued a small length of rubber sleeve to the Slider, which I cut along one side, so it can be opened to insert or remove the wires. I applied a similar length of heat shrink to the bundle of four wires, to stop them spreading and as an indicator to which point should be inserted into the rubber sleeve. The smooth arc of the wires runs close to the Slider and Manifold, but the small amount of vertical movement in the Wand, causes only a tiny amount of movement in the wires, when moving across a record. The wires then run up to the Gantry and into the top of the Grommet. This forms a generous loop, with plenty of slack to accommodate the full horizontal travel of the Slider/Wand. In a way, I've separated the Vertical and Horizontal movement. Below the tube I fixed to the Slider, there is only Vertical movement in the wires and above it, there is purely Horizontal movement. The Grommet is positioned High and well back, it sits centrally behind the area of the record containing music, so as to cause the minimum movement/drag over this playing area. A small amount of drag (if it were to occur) in the run out grooves, or in the Wand parking area, is inconsequential. I wrapped the wires around the Gantry several times to keep them neat and tidy.... And soldered them direct to the RCA connectors. I've treated this set up like most pivoting arms, with the installation being a fixed, hard wired affair. I made a new mounting bracket and turned the RCA's through 90 deg, so when attaching interconnects, they come out of the back of the turntable rather than the side. This allows the interconnects to my Phono Stage, mounted on the shelf below the deck, to be shorter. I hope my explanations are clear enough to understand. I think this method gives a clean looking wire dressing, that should have minimum effect on the movement of the Wand or the sound it produces. New Stronger Mounting Plate When setting up this arm, I always had difficulty in leveling the manifold, so the slider just sits and floats stationary. Something always seemed to move. While setting it up after the recent rewire, I noticed the vertical part of the Mounting Plate was moving/bending, when I tightened the Pivot Bolt. I was never going to achieve and maintain an accurate set up like this, so I redesigned the Mounting and made a new one. As you can see, there is a weak point, no wonder the vertical part was moving. It would appear the cut away was to allow the "cube" that everything bolts to, to move to the bottom of its adjustment range, when setting VTA. There is no need for this! I purchased a piece of 3" x 3" x 1/4" equal angle alluminium section (Grade 6082T6) and made a new bracket. It's 12mm taller, which allowed me to move the adjustment slot up by the same amount - no cut away needed in the base and the full VTA adjustment range is available. The New Mounting Plate is much, much stronger! I've had several inquiries, but unfortunately I can't make these for other people as I don't have the facilities, plus I'm retired and Arthritis is setting in. I got a local machine shop to mill the three slots for me in the equal angle extrusion, I did the rest of the work myself using hand tools and a belt sander. Only the front slot needs to be made accurately, everything else, other than the M3 tapped hole for the VTA adjuster, is cosmetic and requires no accuracy in making. But it's surprising what you can do with a hacksaw and file. I finished the part using a Scotch Brite plastic abrasive pad. I don't have access to a CAD package, but I knocked out this dimensioned drg in Corel Draw, should anyone want to make one of these. DRG Remember the mounting slot positions are for my deck Here it is on a trial fitting, I had to reduce the height of my wooden spacer/mounting block by 9mm and reduce the length of the mounting bolts that go into my deck accordingly. The end result is that the manifold sits 3mm higher than before, when in the center of the adjustment slot. This additional height, is to allow the use of a 3mm thick Copper mat, on top of my Acrylic Platter. There is an Acetate sheet, between the VTA Block and the Mounting Plate, this is to help the VTA block slide when adjusting VTA height. I replaced this with a PTFE (Teflon) sheet of the same thickness. The new Mounting Plate, Spacer and wire dressing looks right somehow and fit for purpose, all I need to do now, is install the Arm on my deck and try it out. Performance Well here it is fitted to my DIY DD Turntable, its sounding great, but I still have to fine tune the settings and work out if I prefer the sound with the bare Acrylic Platter (Recommended by Pro-Ject the manufacturer) or with my 3mm thick SPH "SCuMat" (Copper Mat). Air Supply The pump that came with my Terminator has served me well, but isn't the quitest one available. I decided to replace it with a pump that has a reputation for running smooth and quite. It's the HYGGER HG095 4W version (Amazon). This gives 95GPH/360LPH at 0.02 MPa pressure (2.9 psi). So slightly larger flow and slightly more pressure, but not by much. Sound level is <35dB. I also replaced the stock 5L fuel can, used as a smoothing tank, with a Chain Saw fuel can. This has two tanks in one, a 3L compartment meant for 2-Stroke Oil and a separate 5L compartment for Petrol, so it's still of a reasonable size. With two tanks, it has two filling spouts/caps at the top, so I used these to connect the two compartments together. The air from the pump enters the bottom of smaller 3L tank first, then into the 5L tank, where it exits towards the bottom and continues to the Terminator. The original pump had two 4mm outputs connected to a "Y" piece, with a single 4mm output branch feeding the smoothing tank. The new pump also has twin 4mm outputs, but I connect these individually to the 3L chamber. I filled this with 3L of Polystyrene balls (4 to 6mm diameter).  The idea of the balls is to create multiple paths of different lengths, in an attempt to break up the pump pulses, or at least increase their frequency. I thought it wise to add an in line filter after the tank, as any Polystyrene particles getting through to the Terminator, could easily block the holes in the manifold. I can report that the twin entry and Polystyrene balls do seem to smooth out the air pulses. I removed the pumps fixed power cord and added a figure 8 power socket, with removable right angle lead. This is more convenient, when moving the Tank/Pump as one piece. I wrapped the pump in 10mm thick acoustic foam, which also reduced noise by a small amount. But ultimately, I moved the whole air supply to a different room, so I can't here it at all now. I was sceptical, about a smoother air supply improving the sound quality of the Terminator, but it definitely does, even the wife, who is a casual listener, thought it sounded quite a bit better.