Kuzma Safir 9 Tonearm

What you’ll see in the video is proof that the offset angle does not cause skating, but that “overhang” does. Both the angular offset and “overhang” (wherein the stylus extends beyond the pivot-to-spindle distance by a specified number of millimeters, so the arc traversed by the stylus also extends beyond the spindle) were devised at least one hundred years ago as ways to minimize LTE (lateral tracking error). If your arm can extend directly over your turntable’s spindle, you’ll see that the stylus literally “overhangs” the spindle. The arm’s actual length (measured pivot to spindle) plus the “overhang” defines the arm’s “effective length.”

While audio journalist Percy Wilson is usually credited for the math, which was published in two Fall 1924 issues of The Gramophone, I recently came across an article claiming a very similar offset/overhang solution that was patented in 1908 in France by a Hungarian, Bela Harsanyi (tinyurl.com/3wbj3hs6), though apparently Wilson was unaware of it.

Meanwhile, there are misguided individuals producing arms with no offset angle and no anti-skating control, who believe no offset angle equals no skating, which is not true. However, no offset angle does mean increased LTE and greater distortion. Others produce arms with no offset angle and no overhang, thinking that solves the skating problem, but it doesn’t! Instead, it produces a condition where the arm skates to the apex of the arc midway across the record and stops. Yes, at that one point there’s no skating. Move the arm to the innermost groove area, and the arm skates in the opposite direction back to the apex. (You’ll see this in one of the videos. For the purposes of the video demos, Mr. Boisclair uses grooveless records, but don’t ever use one to set anti-skating!) Longer arms skate less because their geometry lessens the “overhang,” not because of the decreased offset angle!

Has an arm manufacturer touted to you in person or in literature that his arm bearings use the highest quality ABEC 7 “Super Precision” ball-race bearings, followed by a spinning demonstration? I’ve seen that demo for years and was always impressed, until the obvious (so obvious that I missed it!) was pointed out to me by Acoustical Systems’ Dieter Brakemeier, designer of the AXIOM tonearm: Bearings in tonearms never spin; instead, in the vertical direction at least, they move a miniscule fraction of a single rotation. Spinning demos are nothing but a flashy distraction. What’s more important—critically important—is a bearing with low starting friction, so it responds immediately and precisely to vertical arm movements. Clearly, that’s more important in a tonearm bearing than one that spins and spins. I missed that one for decades!

The “Technology” chapter of the sumptuously produced Kuzma brochure I picked up at the 2022 Munich High End show discusses in detail tonearm-bearing design. It references the importance of low starting friction and the relative inadequacies of ball bearings—even those that conform to ABEC standards—because they are open and attract dirt: in their grooves, on the balls, and in the oil. Instead, Kuzma and Brakemaier use a vacuum-packed, low-friction bearing type found in gyroscopes, each with an individual serial number, that’s further tested for noise and lubrication. 

A Restless, Creative Mind

Since 1983, the restless, creative mind of Slovenian mechanical engineer Franc Kuzma has produced a wide variety of tonearm and turntable designs. There are currently a dozen arms in the catalog. Kuzma got started when the LP was supposedly finished, obsoleted by the newly introduced CD. Kuzma’s investment in “old tech” took a certain amount of “chutzpah” (Slovenian for “nerve”), though, like many others, he had faith in the superiority of analog sound, especially back then when it was obvious to all but the mathematically mesmerized. Clearly, his bet paid off.

Kuzma has designed and manufactured unipivot arms, gimbaled-bearing arms, true captured air-bearing arms (as opposed to free-floating “hovercrafts”), and of course his most original and I think his best design, the 4Point, which is available in 11″ and 14″ versions with pivot points offset by high-mass, “adjustable-on-the-fly” VTA towers, and in a 9″ version, which, though it doesn’t offer VTA “on-the-fly” adjustability, is, I think, the best sounding among them—or was until the introduction of the $22,500 Safir 9.

Like the conventional 9″ 4Point, the Safir 9’s effective length is 229mm, its P2S distance is 212mm, and its offset angle is 23 degrees. Unlike the other 4Points, the Safir 9’s headshell is not removable, so swapping cartridges easily is out. No point in getting into the 9″ vs 12″ debate here, other than to say that each has advantages and disadvantages and that “off the record” (in order not to offend customers) many arm designers say they prefer the 9″ arms. 

The 4Point has been reviewed in these pages, but for those who tuned in late, the unique concept and execution bears repeating. Think of the Safir 9 and all 4Point arms as quad unipivots. Instead of a single hardened point sitting in a jeweled cup, there are four: two arrayed horizontally for vertical motion and another two arrayed vertically, in an enclosure around which they rotate, for horizontal movement. The hardened, super-sharp steel points sit in sapphire cups. Kuzma’s Safir 9 literature claims, without explanation, that these are a “further improvement” over the ones found in the other 4Points.

The design results in very low friction, zero “play,” and little or no (probably no) bearing “chatter” because of the high mass of the solid aluminum and brass block structure that supports both the arm tube and the four points. The mass will keep the point “glued” to the cup, though it will be able to “roll” as necessary within it. Unlike conventional unipivots, the 4Point delivers stability in all axes and free horizontal and vertical movement.

Though it lacks “on the fly” VTA/SRA adjustability, precisely setting VTA/SRA is easy, via a fine-thread screw within the arm base, accessible only when the arm is in its rest (similar to SME’s system). I set VTA/SRA using a microscope at 93 degrees, which allows for a one-degree drop under dynamic conditions, and I’m done. If you obsess record by record, have at it, but count me out. I’m in it to play records, not play with turntables and adjust for every LP. Azimuth adjusts on the Safir 9 as on conventional 4Points with a smoothly operating worm gear that precisely rotates the arm tube, though here the system’s even more elegantly realized. Anti-skating is via Kuzma’s conventional weight/lever/monofilament system. The arm is wired with a straight run of silver-alloy wire sourced from Japan from cartridge clips to RCA (or XLR) plugs.

The large mass located above the pivot points produces an unusually high center of gravity—precisely the opposite of single-point unipivots, that, to ensure stability, usually hang the mass well below the pivot point. The 4Point’s high center of gravity produces one behavioral oddity, which may at first disturb or even startle: If you lift the arm well up off the record surface, even with a cartridge installed, it will float up on its own and hang in the air, pulled up by the counterweight.  The counterweight stub, placed well below the arm tube, enhances stability when the stylus is in the groove, but it contributes to this behavioral oddity if you lift the arm abnormally high. Even if raised slightly, you’ll feel the arm wanting to float upward. The other 4Points exhibit the same behavior. The 11″ and 14″ versions include a vertical damping trough that I recommend using to minimize this issue, but in practical terms, unless you play a lot of warped records, it’s not a problem. At record-level, the arm’s behavior and tracking performance are exemplary.

The high center of gravity means that the higher up from the record surface you measure vertical tracking force, the lower will be the actual in-the-groove tracking force. The inverse is true of most arms with centers of gravity below the pivot point. Those arms, SATs for example, want to go down, not up. So the higher up from the record surface you measure VTF, the lighter will be the actual in-the-groove VTF. SAT gives owners a formula to calculate the correct setting based upon how high above the record surface your gauge measures tracking force. The discrepancies in both cases are not insignificant!  For instance, to get the desired tracking force with the 9″ SAT arm using a gauge that measures it 4mm above the record surface, you’ll need to add 0.22 grams to what you measure. Most gimballed bearing arms have centers of gravity at the pivot (neutral balance), as do the Graham arms, even though they are modified unipivots, so tracking force values will remain the same however high above the record surface you measure.

The star of the Safir 9 show is, of course, the synthetic sapphire arm tube. Mass and stiffness determine how much an arm flexes and vibrates, while how well it’s damped determines how long the vibration lasts. The Safir 9 tube is an extremely rigid and high-mass structure with an effective mass of 60 grams. The overall structural mass of the Safir 9 arm is 1250 grams, which makes it a very heavy arm, clearly not suited for spring-suspended turntables. I would think twice about putting the Safir 9 on a Linn Sondek or an Avid Acutus, for examples, but I’ve seen and more importantly heard one used successfully on a Döhmann Helix 2 turntable, which has an integral Minus-K platform suspension.

Kuzma claims the sapphire tube to be “resonant free up to 5kHz.” I’ll have to take him at his word about the tube itself, but as part of a tonearm system with bearing housing and other parts, all arms for which I’ve ever seen measurements have a low-frequency resonance in the 100Hz–130Hz region (arm measurements are of not just the tube but of the whole arm)—a resonance that you want to be at a low frequency and from there to fall off steeply and cleanly, usually followed by a second harmonic. Is the Safir 9 completely free of a low-frequency resonance? I haven’t a means to measure. I can only go by what I hear. And of course, this resonance is not related to the arm/cartridge resonant frequency, which measured at the desirable 8–12Hz range with the low-compliance mc cartridges I used for the review.

What sets the best arms apart from the lumpy and/or disorganized-sounding lesser ones are to a great degree how well they control these resonances and eliminate ones above. I didn’t have to measure the SME VA arm used exclusively on the new Model 60 to know how well organized it was on the bottom, how deep and concentrated the bass was. Same with the SAT arms. It took only a few minutes back in 2015 to hear that the original SAT arm was the best I’d ever heard (though “best in the world” is not something I will ever write) and that the current SAT CF1-09 currently priced at around $50,000 is even better. Franc Kuzma’s assault on “best” clocks in at less than half that steep price.

Safir 9 Setup, Use, and Sound

The Safir 9 is the easiest to set up 4Point thanks to a smartly redesigned pivot structure/arm tube block interface. Aligning the points in the cups of the previous 4Points has always been somewhat tricky. The new rectangular interface makes it easy, other than one cautionary tip for this and all 4Points: How you dress the wire loop exiting the arm block has a significant effect on the arm’s free movement and especially affects setting anti-skating. If you have a WallySkater, set it up and “play” with the wire loop. You’ll see how greatly its position can affect the applied anti-skating.  The rest of the setup is straightforward “non-fiddly” Kuzma style, helped by an outstanding instruction manual, something Kuzma has steadily improved upon over the years. 

I auditioned the Safir 9 on the Acoustic Signature Montana NEO and on the Esoteric Grandioso T1, which comes with an Ikeda arm. I couldn’t use it on the OMA K3, which, because of its oversized platter accepts only 12″ arms. Cartridges included the Audio Technica AT-MC2022 ($9000), the Ortofon MC Diamond ($9999), the Lyra Atlas Lambda SL ($12,995) and the Soundsmith Paua MkII ($3995).

There’s no need to separate the review into how each cartridge fared on the Safir 9 because, while each produced the expected sonic differences, the results were the same. The Safir 9 made clear as only a few arms I’ve heard have, the difference between genuinely deep, tightly controlled bass engraved in the grooves of some records, and exaggerated, less than well-controlled “bass” created by lesser arms (and cartridges) that creates the “warmth” attributed to vinyl playback—especially in the mainstream press as it tries to explain the vinyl resurgence.

Experienced analog reviewers with whom I’ve spoken agree that the first impulse “pop” of the stylus hitting the record surface can predict with remarkable accuracy much of what you are going to hear when the music starts, but especially in the bottom octaves. A warm, “plummy,” lingering “pop” or a hollow “drummy” signature signals warm colorations and lack of bottom end control, as well as resonances that will excite certain notes that can fool you into thinking there’s deep bass in the grooves when there isn’t.

What happens when a cartridge and/or arm, or the combination clears up and delivers the bottom octaves as well as the Safir 9 does? Both amazing and disappointing things. Few rock recordings have truly deep bass. Added colorations can add a pleasing warmth, but once you experience what an arm of this caliber can do for the truly great recordings in your collection, you’ll have trouble going back. The title track on Davy Spillane’s Atlantic Bridge (Tara 3019), featuring Bela Fleck, Albert Lee, and Jerry Douglas, plus Spillane’s “Uilleann pipes” (yes, I’m recommending a bagpipe record), musically traces Irish migration to the birth of bluegrass and other music indigenous to the Appalachian Blue Ridge mountains.

It’s a sonic spectacular with a very firm bass foundation that when exaggerated by arms that can’t deal with the energy, adds some “shake the room” fun in the lower extremities, while also clouding up and obfuscating detail you don’t miss until you hear it. When properly played back minus the resonant excitation, the entire sonic picture clarifies (especially in the lower midrange), the music’s rhythmic thrust intensifies, and even higher frequency transients become noticeably cleaner and better resolved. The track “Atlantic Bridge” features Spillane on pipes and a low whistle, Albert Lee on electric guitar, Fleck on banjo, Christy Moore on bodhran (an Irish drum), plus percussion bass and drums. The Safir 9 reproduced with ease percussive details lesser arms hide within pleasingly warm and plump musical folds. You’d happily toss the warmth to get what the arm’s lack of resonances reveal on this record and on all the familiar records played.

When records contain real low bass, the Safir 9 delivers it fully. When records don’t contain deep low bass, the arm doesn’t invent any. This also helps produce ultra-quiet, rumble-free backgrounds. I pulled out some “audiophile” classics I’d not played in years (or decades) to check out the arm’s bottom end performance, including M&K RealTime’s The Power and the Glory (RT-114) and the Telarc D2D classic Michael Murray playing The Great Organ in the Methuen Memorial Music Hall (Telarc 5035 DD-2). Anyone used to hearing “bass” on their Loving Spoonful albums and missing it through the Safir 9 (namely me), need only hear the 16Hz–20kHz+ recorded onto the Telarc and M&K records to know the arm is fully capable of delivering the deepest bass frequencies minus added resonant colorations.

The Safir 9 delivered with impressive, uncolored clarity, transparency, and spatial stability the Bruckner 7^th Berlin Philharmonic direct-to-disc recording conducted by Bernard Haitink to which I was honored to contribute some annotation. The various cartridges—all low-coloration transducers—communicated through the Safir 9 their own pleasing differences, but what remained consistent was the arm’s ability to deliver with unforced clarity the weight, textures, and rhythmic thrust of the double basses, violas, and cellos, while conveying without even a trace of hardness the sheen of the violins in what is a notably dry, unforgiving hall. Only my reference SAT arm at more than twice the price delivers the massed strings this way. As good as the standard 4Point is, and I’ve owned the 11″ edition for well over a decade, it can’t match the more costly Safir 9.

A revealing product like the Safir 9 almost forces you to retrieve and listen to long forgotten records. I found a 1978 Mark Levinson acoustic recordings Eliot Fisk, Solo Guitar (MLAR C 45 000 006). Fisk, who’d studied with Segovia among others, had just graduated Yale when he recorded this recital of his own Bach and Scarlatti transcriptions. The arm’s resonance-free (or low-resonance) performance creates between the speakers a credible, stable, properly sized to be believable guitarist set in a subtle acoustic. The transient articulation is sensational.

Nirvana (Atlantic 90141-1) is a lesser-known Bill Evans Trio album recorded in 1961 and 1962 but not released until 1966, on which Herbie Mann accompanies the group. Recording began five months after the devasting Scott La Faro car crash and bassist Chuck Israels had just joined to form the “second trio.” It’s a mostly quiet, meditative set, including two Mann originals and Erik Satie’s “Gymnopedie.”

I fell in love with this quiet, soothing record while in college and made the stereo original one of my “go-to” late-night faves, despite the distorted piano sound. The mono 1984 reissue is better, with no piano distortion. Obviously, they ran a separate mono mic feed and tape recorder. The Safir 9 delivered this one with supple, extended, tactile bass, shimmering Paul Motian cymbal work, a rich-sounding, delicate piano that communicates well Evans’ light touch and a subtle, lush side of the usually more animated Mann. The Safir 9 rendered this jazz delicacy as effectively as I’ve ever heard it.

Conclusion

Had I not spent the previous eight or so years owning and using as a reference the remarkable and costly SAT CF1-09, I’d declare the Kuzma Safir 9 the most accomplished and best-performing tonearm I’ve yet heard. I have no way to compare the two due to armboard logistics, but I can write with complete confidence that at less than half the price of the SAT the Safir 9 offers more than credible competition, though it might fall slightly short on bass “wallop” (the genuine, not resonance-produced kind). It shares with the SAT an elegant design simplicity, ease of setup and use, build-quality, and of course an ability to sort out, organize, and present with relaxed, confident authority whatever the cartridge pulls from the record grooves.

Specs & Pricing

Effective length: 229mm (9″)
Mounting distance from spindle: 212mm
Offset angle: 23 degrees
Effective mass: 60 grams
Adjustments: VTA, azimuth, bias compensation
Internal wiring: Silver alloy
Overall mass (Weight): 1250 grams
Price: $22,000

KUZMA LTD.
Jelenceva 1
SI-4000 KRANJ
Slovenia
kuzma.si

ELITE AUDIO/VISUAL DISTRIBUTION (U.S. Distributor)
eliteavdist.com

Associated Equipment
Loudspeakers: Wilson Audio Specialties Chronosonic XVX
Turntables: Esoteric Grandioso T1, Acoustic Signature Montana Neo
Preamplifier: darTzeel NHB-18NS
Power amplifier: darTzeel NHB 468 monoblocks
Phono preamplifier: CH Precision P1/X1PSU, Ypsilon VPS-100, MC-26LS SUT
Cables and interconnects: AudioQuest Dragon & TARA Labs The Zero Evolution & Analysis Plus Silver Apex & Stealth Sakra and Indra (interconnects). AudioQuest Dragon and Dynamic Design Neutron GS Digital (A.C. power cords)
Accessories: AudioQuest Niagara 7000 (line level), CAD Ground Controls; AudioQuest NRG Edison A.C. wall box and receptacles, ASC Tube traps, RPG BAD, Skyline & Abffusor panels, Stillpoints Aperture II room panels, Stillpoints ESS and HRS Signature stands, HRS XVR turntable base, Thixar and Stillpoints amplifier stands, Audiodharma Cable Cooker, Furutech Record demagnetizer, Orb Disc Flattener, Audiodesksysteme Vinyl Cleaner Pro X, Kirmuss Audio KA-RC-1 and KLAUDIO KD-CLN-LP200T record cleaning machines, full suite WallyTools