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The Korf Blog
The inside story: our research,
development and opinions
development and opinions
26 September 2017
Prototype 6, Carbon Fibre Mystery
Prototype number 6 has a 10 mm diameter carbon fibre tube with 1 mm wall thickness. The fabric is machine laid, which does not make a lot of difference strength-wise for a simple round tube of constant diameter.
Below is the vibrometry chart. I've left the Prototype 4 and Prototype 5 on the chart for comparison.
Well, this is different.
The 0-900 Hz baseline is a lot higher than with all the metal arm tubes. I actually thought it's some kind of error, and used a different channel of the signal conditioner for a second measurement. Nope, it's all correct.
My hypothesis is that it's composed of the usual resonances (you can see the tiny "hills" at about 300 and 600 Hz if you look closely). They are quite pronounced (at least as significant as Prototype 4's), but they have extremely low Q and thus they blend into each other.
The 0-900 Hz baseline is a lot higher than with all the metal arm tubes. I actually thought it's some kind of error, and used a different channel of the signal conditioner for a second measurement. Nope, it's all correct.
My hypothesis is that it's composed of the usual resonances (you can see the tiny "hills" at about 300 and 600 Hz if you look closely). They are quite pronounced (at least as significant as Prototype 4's), but they have extremely low Q and thus they blend into each other.
Subjective evaluation
Nice! There's a bit less punch compared to steel armtubes, but more feeling of space, "air" and instrument separation. Feels like a tiny bit of extra reverb's been added to everything. It's the kind of sound that gives a very good first impression, but can get tiring after a few hours of listening.
Give a little, take a little, but the total grade, in my opinion, remains the same.
Result: ★★★★☆
Give a little, take a little, but the total grade, in my opinion, remains the same.
Result: ★★★★☆
Next week, next arm tube!
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