Let me know how it works out. I have been using a variety of Rocks for years now. I believe that Max townshend tends to favor the Rega family of arms, especially if you look and the arc of the trough itself. Personally, I feel that the fluid trough in the from really allows the cart to dig out the musical material and help isolate the card from bearing and motor noise.
A few years ago, I had a friend over and he was very curious about the trough so I ran a bizzare test to show him what it could do. It is not for the faint of heart but, here it is.
I dropped the needle on a record without having the platter turning. Next, I grabbed an reciprocating electric razor and turned it on and pressed it against the plinth. Seeing that the fluid acts in both an relative and absolute energy transfer at the same time, the vibrations in the plinth were transmitted to the cart (absolute transfer) resulting in no noise in the amplifier that was well, cranked up quite high!!!! I repeated the same demonstration with the fluid trough swung out of the way (and the amplifier turned down) and well, your guessed it, you could hear the vibrations out of the speakers. The same thing happens with the motor and any bearing rumble, it is absolute to the arm and the cart.
The trough is very amazing and in 10 years, I have never split any fluid on the records. When changing records, it adds about 5 extra seconds to swing the trough out of the way. The acoustic properties of the plinth are removed which I prefer. I want to hear what is in the grooves, not the coloration of the table itself. The rock series is great. If I ever purchase a 'killer' table in the future, I will be heading to a machine shop so I can custom mount a front end fluid trough to the new TT.
Steve
