I see on many older Japanese turntables references to "static balanced" and "dynamic balanced' tonearms.

What does this mean? Are these just marketing buzzwords?

The only type of arms I know are gimbal, unipivot and linear.

It has to do with the way the tracking force is accomplished. With statically balanced arms the balancing and tracking force are set through the use of a counterweight. With dynamically balanced arms, there may be a counterweight used for initial balancing, but tracking force is achieved via a spring or servo motors applying a downward force on the arm. The theoretical advantage is better tracking, especially over warps, where a counterweight balanced arm might wobble more.

So that must be how the Dual arms work. I always wondered about that.

I am indeed impressed. Been following hi-fi for many years and did not know that. Much appreciated. Learn something new every day ...

Been doing a bit of reading on the topic. Statically balanced means the item is balanced in one plane. Dynamically balanced means it is balanced in 2 planes and the unbalance only manifests itself when the object is in motion. The statically balanced item will stay stationary about its' rotational axis regardless of the position it's put in, but if it is not also in dynamic balance, it could still wobble in the other plane once it is set into motion (ex. wheel spinning).

How this applies to a tonearm.....no idea :sigh:

Hakaplan has explained what the terms mean wrt to TT's, but it would seem to me the terms that should have been used are perhaps passive vs active balancing.....or something else?

Well ... there may be more to it ...

When I look at late-generation Japanese arms (1980s+), several (for example Kenwood) started to tout "static balanced" as a feature. Now, by the '80s, they really knew what they were doing by then (despite some saying the pinnacle was the late '70s). So there must be some advantage to static balanced if they were talking about this as a "feature". Kenwood made the famous L-07D table in 1980, so they obviously knew what they were up to in introducing a "static balanced" arm in 1985.

Would be interesting to know if there is more to it than meets the eye.

And most of the better Dual models have a balance weight or two tacked to underneath parts of the arm that are normally hidden from view. It seems that Dual was way ahead on this feature.

Seth
Forever Analog and Covered In Parrot Poop

Just by googling I see:

SME v5 - Statically balanced
Ikeda/Fidelity Research - Dynamically balanced

One advantage claimed by Ikeda to dynamically balanced tonearms, is that they mate better with low compliance moving coils. Because the cartridge cantilever is very stiff on Denons for example, a dynamically balanced arm, will help it deal with minute warps. Whereas a static balanced arm, works better with high-compliance cartridges, low mass arms and compliant cantilevers.

Interesting stuff ... few people seem to know about this, except for the Japanese (of course).