[Listening test] BennyAudio Immersion Tonearm

BennyAudio Immersion Tonearm

An unipivot tonearm with many interesting features

Product: unipivot tonearm
Manufacturer: BennyAudio - Poland
Recommended Retail Price: 2500€ as of September 2022
Reviewer: Piero Canova - TNT Italy
Reviewed: September 2022

Introduction

If you go back to the first part of this review, you will find that the Immersion 2 set-up is based on a belt-driven turntable and a 12,5" tonearm. Since both the turntable and tonearm have several innovative features I decided to review the turntable separately from the arm, then the arm, and finally the two together. This is part two, the tonearm.

How it is made

The basic design is an unipivot construction and the sample I am reviewing is 12.5" long. Let me first describe how it is made and then the benefits we can get from it.

The length of 12,5" is unusual being 0,5" longer than other long arms on the market. By extensive use of Carbon Fiber, it's effective mass is quite low for its length so it works well with medium compliance cartridges like the ZYX R1000 Airy 3S. I chose this cartridge for review on the tonearm, in collaboration with Tomasz (BennyAudio founder). This setup offers the benefits of a reduced harmonic distortion, typical of long arms, coupled with the flexibility of a wide spectrum of cartridges having similar compliances. This also reduces the need to apply a lot of anti-skating force and should also allow a longer life for your stylus.
The center of gravity of the arm is concentrated around the pivot and moved very low. The slot where the pivot sits offers plenty of movement in the front to back direction but very little side to side. I have had several experiences in the past with unipivot tonearms where you always felt that the arm might fall from the pivot at any moment. This arm has so much weight low down that it looks completely stable and safe just like a gimballed arm.

The setup of the system is very clever: you can use any protractor you have to set the offset angle by rotating the cartridge, while the overhang is set by moving it back or forward. The problem is that unless you have the hands of a surgeon, when you slide it back or forward you most likely will rotate the cartridge so the experience is very frustrating and time-consuming. On the headshell of the Immersion arm, there is a slot for the outer screw, but just a hole for the inner one so you can only rotate the cartridge, while the overhang can be set by rotating the support of the arm. In this way the entire arm will move forward or backward and having the two movements completely separated you can have a perfect setup in minutes.

The counterweight is divided in two parts: the main weight can be manually slid to have a gross regulation of VTF (Vertical tracking Force) while the smaller part can also slide fora very precise setting of the VTF. If you want to live with cartridges like my Lyra Clavis DC where 0,02g of VTF can change the sound this is a very welcome feature.

The arm has a small dial on the base that allows precise regulation of the VTA (Vertical tracking Angle); it is designed to allow also regulation "on the fly" but I prefer to lift the arm from the record and make static adjustments. Anti-skating force is applied through a very simple weight on a small wire.
The wiring of the arm is made from mono-crystalline silver by Albedo; at the base of the arm, there are two RCA connectors so you can use the cables of your choice from the arm to the phono stage.

Summarizing all the above we have an unipivot tonearm that will allow you to fit most of today's MC cartridges, that will reduce harmonic distortion, is very simple to set up, very stable and safe, and is built using excellent components.. The ingredients look right, but let's see if the plate is tasty as expected.

How does it sound

Personally, among all the components of a Hi-End system, my favorites have always been the tonearms. I have lost count of how many arms I have bought and sold in the last 20 years and the hours I have spent setting them up. To test the arm alone I used a column in stainless steel; the column is hollow and it is filled with sand and lead shot to minimize the transmission of any vibration. The turntable was a Denon DP 6000 motor unit on a custom plinth made in birch plywood and lead sheets weighing 80 Kg. As a phono stage, I decided to go for the Parasound Halo JC3 since it has in my view, a lovely synergy with the ZYX. I began the test with the usual HFFR test record to see if everything was correct and how good was the tracking.

Happy that everything was performing as usual, I moved to some serious listening. As usual, I will spare you the list of records I used and all the comparisons between my other arm on the same turntable; the result is that this is an excellent arm, performing very well with all music genres. Among its sound characteristics, what did hit me first, was the solidity of bass frequencies. Usually, unipivot arms tend to be far more musical than gimballed ones, but lighter in the lower frequencies. Here the low end is as powerful as with a gimballed arm, but without the mechanical reproduction of these last ones. The ZYX has possibly the best mid-range in the market and this arm lets it shine at its best. On the highs, it tends sometimes to be slightly open, but in my experience, this is often related to arm wand construction where carbon fiber presence is very high.

The DP 6000 is my personal choice for PRaT and the arm follows it perfectly in giving you a presentation that's very dynamic and involving. In my ranking, I put it above some very popular High-End tonearms (SME, Origin Live) and in the same league as the Morsiani CM1 and the Triplanar VII (even if this last one has a finish unrivaled by either BennyAudio or Morsiani). The only arm I had that I still consider superior is the Schroeder Reference, but not by far.

The only two defects I can find are the need to use an arm support which could create some problems when installed on other turntables and having to use a separate cable from the tonearm to the phono stage. What puzzles me is the fact that none of us will accept soldered conductors in any of our interconnect cables but here, from the cartridge clips to the phono stage, we have four soldered joints and three RCA connectors. Now, considering that the ZYX has a tiny 0,24mV output, wouldn't you think that soldered joints and connectors can have some effect on the signal? Or if you prefer, the better performance of a Schroeder Reference is purely due to its superb construction or it is also due to the use of a single wire from cartridge terminals to RCA connectors on the phono stage side?

Conclusions

In today's world, to pay "just" 2500€ for a 12,5" arm is simply a bargain. If you consider the performance only, the Morsiani CM1will give you an equivalent level for a price but it isn't anymore in production. If the installation was a bit easier it would be an almost perfect arm.

The Gran Finale: how do the turntable and the arm sound together?

In the first part of the review, I commented on the turntable that it was just a bit short of being perfectly neutral and balanced in its reproduction. The arm is in the same line, with a very balanced and detailed reproduction of all frequencies. The two together complete the picture, with the turntable moderating the slight excess of highs while the arm gives some extra shine to the presentation of the combination. I spent almost one month listening the two together and I have also involved friends in the process. Everybody was completely in agreement that we were listening to an excellent turntable and arm and that for most of us this could be a definitive turntable. One last comment: I am convinced that, if you call Tomasz and you ask him to produce for you a 14" arm with roughly the same effective mass as the 12,5" tested here, and with single-strand wires, he would be able to do it and this arm will be a true killer.

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