Reed 3P Gimbal Bearing System Tonearm

Reed 3P

Gimbal ‘Uni-pivot’ Bearing Type Tonearm

The Reed 3P is the third offering in the Reed tonearm range and is considered to be the ultimate expression of this type of tonearm technology. It is so innovative that it has won or been nominated for many international design awards and has some totally unique features.

Central to these is the fact that the Reed 3P allows you to setup most of the tonearm’s parameters (VTA, azimuth, antiskating) on the fly! Yes, you can make the finest adjustments while playing a record! Remarkably, the azimuth adjustment mechanism allows the cartridge to ‘swing’ around the needle tip during the adjustment process, hence keeping all other tonearm parameters intact. This type of technology is unique to Reed and an example of the engineering & thinking that has gone into this design. You can see how it works by watching this short video.

Adjusting the Azimuth on the Reed 3P on the fly

Another Reed 3P innovation is its bearing system. Although the tonearm bearing system can be considered as a gimbal design, it actually acts like a unipivot. However, the major difference from the unipivot system is that instead of using a single pivot, the Reed design incorporates three pivots with magnetic stabilisers used for the vertical and horizontal axis. This bearing system is as rigid as a gimbal but its friction coefficient is as low as a unipivot design. The result is a bearing system that is rigid & reliable but picks up and communicates the most subtle musical information.

The antiskating system is magnetic and the 3P uses evolved versions of design elements that were developed in their famous Reed Mag prototype model which made its first appearance in the Analog Forum 2011, in Krefeld, Germany.

The Reed 3P tonearm has been acknowledged for its distinctive design on multiple occasions. It convinced the 30-member expert jury of the “Red Dot Award: Product Design 2012” International Design Award and received a coveted Red Dot Award. The Red Dot design award, held by Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen (Germany) and with origins reaching back to the 1950s, has established itself internationally as one of the most appreciated quality seals for outstanding designs.

In July 2013, the German Design Council Committees nominated the Reed 3P tonearm for the German Design Award 2014, Lifestyle category. The German Design Award is a highly reputed, premium international award which has been in existence for 60 years now and achieving a nomination on the occasion of the anniversary of the German Design Council is especially significant.

We can acknowledge the design and innovation of the Reed 3P but in terms of audio, these accolades are only useful if they translate to an improved sonic performance. What has given the 3P such a desirable reputation is not the awards or the technical talk – it’s simply that it is one of the best sounding arms available at any price. There is a naturalness and flow that will have you forgetting that you are listening to a hi-fi system. Absolutely mesmerizing.

Finish Options

The pictures below are for the purposes of showing the finish options and the tonearm model may differ from the model described above.

Seashell White

Black

Palladium

Gold Matte

Gold Gloss

Armwand Options

Wenge

Macassar Ebony

Cocobolo

Teak Light

Teak Dark

Product Specification

Approximate Effective Mass of Reed 3P Tonearm Options

User Reviews