The new 9.6″ tonearm bears a close resemblance to the 10.5 tonearm. Various component parts that have performed perfectly in our previous tonearms like the arm tube with the special hard ceramic surface, the headshell, the tonearm lift and also the mounting socket are also used in the 9.6 tonearm. Therefore the 9.6 can be mounted in the same tonearm bases pre-drilled for the 10.5 or 12.1. Will ship in August, retail $3,990

The new Pi MC cartridge seen here mounted in the new 9.6 tonearm on a gorgeous Oasis with a makssar (ebony) plinth.

On the Pi Helmut Brinkmann chose a microridge stylus, which has the best resolution in fine recorded detail, while offering proven reliability. The stylus is mounted on a boron cantilever which in turn drives a copper voice coil. The utmost attention was given to the rigidity of the magnetic circuit to prevent eddy currents which would corrupt the low level output signal.

After eight years in development, the Edison phono stage will ship next month, it has three inputs, each of which’s loading & gain can be adjusted by the remote control. The settings can be stored in memory. It uses vacuum tubes both for the first gain stage as well as for the balanced implementation. Retail $12,990

Finally, Brinkmann have finished their cartridge & tonearm alignment Protractor. This is a precision piece of engineering and while not cheap, should prove very useful. I have seen Helmut use this to set up tonearms and its a doddle. Retail $600

[‘a doddle’ must be ‘Brit’ nomenclature for ‘awesome’ :-)]