Sorane TA-1

Stereophile Review (Art Dudley)

Sorane/ All handmade and hand assembled by craftsmen

Since the company's foundation in 1974, Katsuaki Ishiyama-san has established and accumulated extensive knowhow in the design and development of various tonearms and other analog equipment. Each piece is manufactured through a completely handmade and assembled process, based on his belief that fine-tuning can only be achieved through the precise and sensitive hands of skilled craftsmen.

Even though modern technology such as CNC milling machines is used at their plant for basic parts production, they still rely on the expertise of their craftsmen, particularly during the assembly process. This ensures that the numerous parts achieve ideal mechanical surface contact through meticulous hand-tuning and hand-adjustment.

Shared Features Amongst Sorane Tonearms

(a) Gimbal-bearing designs for excellent bass, dynamics and imaging, as well as unconditional azimuth stability (the biggest problem for unipivots).

(b) Antiskating

(c) Detachable headshells to allow quick changes of cartridges, the adoption of various mass headshells (to help change the effective mass of the arms and cartridges), and the ability to mount cartridges in a well lit area, in a safe and convenient manner.

(d) Machine-tooled and hand-assembled by skilled Japanese craftsmen. This highly skilled and delicate hand-assembly differentiates Sorane/Abis tonearms from similar mass-produced Japanese tonearms. Standard quality high-volume tonearms are produced by die-casting and semi-automatic assembly line processes to keep production costs low.

(e) Skilled hand assembly does not simply mean “combining the constituent parts by hand”. Skilled hand assembly involves measurement, adjustment and hand-fitting to produce optimal interface between machined surfaces. Once completed, the fitment between every part is ideal, satisfying the necessary conditions for vibration-free and noise-free reproduction of analog sound.

(f) Most importantly, the key to tonearm quality is highly sensitive and delicate motion, for which the bearings are the determining factor.

(g) Concerning the reproduced sound from these models: The designer is confident you will get precise and clean sound, which can only be had from hand-made tonearms, but at a very reasonable price with these arms.

(h) In particular, the SA-1.2 will produce rich and tight bass, coming from the extremely rigid rectangular shaped arm-wand.

(i) In SA-1.2, two sets of fine radial bearings are installed for both horizontal (set in the bearing stem column in this photo) and vertical (further small bearing at tonearm wand). This assures audiophiles of smooth tonearm function, greater longevity, better consistency, and enhanced ability to track warped vinyl.