Origin Live MK3 arms ( upward facing points dual pivot) - Manual

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 )
B ( 3 : 1 )
B
PIVOT ARRANGEMENT FOR
CONQUEROR, ILLUSTRIOUS &
ENCOUNTER ARMS
(ignore differences in armtubes
and yoke shapes - these diagrams
show principles of operation
DETAIL INSIDE CIRCLE B
HORIZONTAL AXLE
fixed in arm
YOKE
CROSS SECTION OF ARM YOKE
PIVOT NEEDLE
SAPPHIRE CUP
for needle point
PIVOT HOLDER SCREW
do NOT adjust as you
this can only be factory set
M3 AZIMUTH
CLAMPING
GRUB SCREW
Do not adjust
DUAL PIVOT MK3 TONEARMS
Specific instructions - essential reading
Upward points - Encounter, Illustrious, Conqueror