arché (headshell):

Allow us to introduce to you the arché-headshell - the true audiophile headshell design which sets an all new standard in versatility and sound quality. This new audiophile headshell will allow you to hear the sound really engraved in your records. It's unique technical features and solutions are all for only one purpose:
to bring to your ears and senses the utmost musical experience in the best possible sonics. Experience what a headshell can really do for the sound of an analog front-end.

When you listen for maybe the first time to a perfect SRA-aligned audiophile cartridge in a headshell which does preserve all the tiny details and transfers every nuance of energy extracted from the stylus to really reach the phono stage and opens up the full musical spell which was recorded.

This headshell is the best link you will find between your cartridge and your tonearm. Your cartridge will love the arché, because it will bring out the very best in it and allows it to shine in a way like never before and so will you.

Objectives:
This new approach to headshell design originated from the request for a sonically supreme headshell which also enables the user to set all vital adjustments of a cartridge right where it should happen  in the headshell.
The goal was to design a headshell which finally takes into account each and every aspect of cartridge mounting and alignment. It should enable the user to precisely and easily adjust azimuth, offset, overhang and SRA/VTA on the spot  right at the cartridge. And to do this without the often inevitable by effect of changing the static/dynamic parameters of the tonearm by lowering the tonearm’s base and thus moving the arm pipe away from the theoretical and practical ideal of the static balanced and resting horizontal level. In the arché© the all important SRA adjustment is performed in utmost precision,  right in and at the headshell and the cartridge’s body without changing accidentally any adjustment in the tonearm itself nor in it’s allimportant static balance.
This point is sadly all too often neglected when recommending to fine tune SRA by lowering/raising the tonearm’s base. For the first time now the arché© allows the owners of the most refined cartridges of today and days past to really get the best possible performance from their top-flight cartridges. Unmatched versatility, a perfect resonance free construction, super fast energy transfer  resulting in an all new level of performance.

Selection of materials and execution:
The arché© is made from super hardened and triple-tempered, then stress-relieved, German origin AP7075 airframe-grade ultra high density aluminum alloy and Grade 2 Titan pipes. A minimum of parallel surfaces and a maximum of further resonance-eliminating drillings, window-frames and treatments resulting in an outstanding resonance-free body. An ultra-rigid construction which allows for an unique fast energy transfer.
After CNC-carving and milling, the major parts of the headshell’s body are exposed to high pressure surface sanding with micro ceramic balls. Thus further hardening the surface before getting tempered and stress-relieved again.
Following this, the surface of the arché© is anodized in satin silver, black, nickel/titanium, rhodium,  or covered with real 18 carat gold (a limited number of 12 units each polished and satin in 18ct. pure yellow and rosé gold coating only).
The assembling of the headshell itself is performed in a special routine in a custom-made tension-frame tool to further increase the unique ability to transfer energy from the cartridge to the tonearm and virtually killing all possible parasitic resonances.
It is the first headshell-design ever, which is executed with the financial and engineering input of a top-flight tonearm. Despite it’s ultra-rigid design and versatility the arché© features a net weight of 17.5 grams (gold or rhodium plated are 18.5 grams) only. This net weight allows it’s use on every tonearm and with all top-flight cartridges.

Design features:
The special routine and procedure in which the major parts of the arché© are assembled and bound together provide an extremely effective dampening of the whole body. This also results in a desired resonance-free body of unparalleled energy transfer speed and thus preserving the most tiny detail extracted by the stylus of the cartridge. The unique design and assembling of the headshell’s body allows an outstanding dynamic performance and preservation of even the most minute detail. Tiny details all too often get lost just a moment after they are dug out of the groove. Lost forever, as what is lost or missed here can never and nowhere in the audio chain be restored or found again. Here they are preserved, allowing the best phono cartridges to really show their virtues.

arché - info......................... (847KB)