Origin Live MK3 arms User Manual

DUAL PIVOT MK3 TONEARMS

Specific instructions - essential reading

Upward points - Encounter, Illustrious, Conqueror

First of all please note that if you ever send
the arm anywhere via post or courier it must
be packed according to the instructions at
the end of this leaflet or damage will occure
to the bearings - For this reason keep all
the packing and these instructions in a safe
place.

Dual pivot bearing design – why?

The Mk 3 Illustrious arm is a significant performance upgrade
over the Mk2 versions by virtue of it’s innovative dual pivot
bearing on the horizontal axle. This design is similar in many
respects to uni-pivot designs – low friction and high decoupling
which give excellent definition and transparency. However
uni-pivots can be fiddly to set up and because of their relative
instability exhibit a mediocre bass performance. Dual pivot
design has all the advantages of uni-pivots but none of the
drawbacks. Vertical movement of the arm is handled by the dual
pivot and horizontal movement by our usual highly specified
conventional bearings.

Handles like a conventional gimballed arms

You should handle the arm in exactly the same way as a
conventional gimballed arm. In other words you do not need
to worry about setting up azimuth and balancing the arm. The
azimuth has already been set, such that the headshell is parallel
to the arm mounting surface. We strongly recommend that you
never adjust the factory setting even though it is possible via
the pivot screws. Correct azimuth setting is tricky at the best of
times and unless careful record is kept on the original factory
settings, one can end up in difficulty. If in trouble see technical
support on our web site www.originlive.com/troubleshooting_
tonearms.htm

Understanding dual pivot

The below diagram showing an illustration of the dual pivot
bearing is shown to give an understanding of why the horizontal
axle is free to move a little in all directions except downwards.
This may be a little disconcerting until you become confident of
the inherent virtues delivered in performance. It is also reassuring
to know that the arm cannot be knocked off it’s bearings or
come loose in any way. You can turn the arm upside down and
nothing will fall off as it would in the case of a uni-pivot!

The pivot bearings are designed to reduce friction to the absolute
minimum practical level. In doing this there is a fine balance
to achieve both a long lasting, robust design and realizing the
potential of extremely low friction. In practice this means that
the arm must have a slight degree of movement due to a rounded
tungsten point in a shallow radiused (nearly flat) bearing cup.
The alternative to this is a very sharp, potentially fragile point
in a deep v shaped cup – this would certainly restrain the
movement of the point but would also increase friction.

The pivot points will “self centre” by sliding into the bottom
of the shallow low friction cup. However the final resting place
of the point in the cup may vary by 0.01mm or so. This would
not be noticed without the use of a very accurate digital stylus
force gauge – as the pivot position changes fractionally so can the
tracking force by up to plus or minus 0.05grams. In practice this
has no effect on performance and is also common among certain
unipivot designs with very low friction bearings.

A-A ( 1.50 : 1 )

CROSS SECTION OF ARM YOKE

PIVOT ARRANGEMENT FOR
CONQUEROR, ILLUSTRIOUS &
ENCOUNTER ARMS
(ignore differences in armtubes
and yoke shapes - these diagrams
show principles of operation

HORIZONTAL AXLE
fixed in arm

B

DETAIL INSIDE CIRCLE B

B ( 3 : 1 )

YOKE

SAPPHIRE CUP
for needle point

PIVOT NEEDLE

M3 AZIMUTH
CLAMPING
GRUB SCREW
Do not adjust

PIVOT HOLDER SCREW
do NOT adjust as you
this can only be factory set

Making the dual points operational

The cork packing peices shown below are critical, to prevent damage to the
bearing points in transit. Gently remove these to make the arm operational
and keep the cork in a safe place. This MUST be replaced whenever you
send the arm by post or any form of courier as they throw boxes around
severely and damage to the points and cups occures unless the cork is in
place.

If you ever lose these instructions they can be downloaded from our web site under technical
support.

CORK PACKING PEICE
WEDGING ARM TUBE
TIGHTLY INTO TOP OF YOKE
AND TAPED ON

2 PEICES OF CORK PACKING EITHER
SIDE OF ARM TUBE AND THEN
WEDGED INTO THE YOKE HOLE TO
ENSURE THE ARM REMAINS CENTRAL
IN THE YOKE

CHECK THAT ALL IS WELL - Once you have installed the arm as per the general instruction
sheet, check the arm for accuracy - e stylus down force should be consistently accurate to
within plus or minus 0.1 grams. Higher deviations indicate that the bearing has been damaged or
incorrectly adjusted.

To check consistency measure the stylus down force over a succession of 10 or so movements of
the arm into the arm clip and then onto a stylus force gauge. It is best to use a digital force gauge
for this as a “balance” type can give inconsistent readings with errors of up to 0.5 grams.

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