At the inception of the Wilson Benesch business plan, our strap line, “The Future is Carbon”, acknowledged the potential for carbon fibre to change the way in which high performance systems would be manufactured and in doing so change the world as we know it. More than 25 years on, examples of this change can be seen across the aerospace and automotive industry where ultimate performance is required. Despite many applications using carbon fibre predominantly for its strength to weight advantages, it is the unique stiffness and damping properties of carbon composites which are of primary concern for Wilson Benesch within audio engineering.

The A.C.T. 25 Tonearm geometry has been highly optimised through finite element analysis (FEA) to provide stiffness and damping across the helical, tapered form of the tonearm. The geometry also reduces material use and thus the mass of the assembled tonearm, reducing the mass requirement of the counterweight and subsequently the system overall.

The carbon fibre arm tube terminates into the aluminium eggshell, the geometry of which has been optimised to achieve a maximal stiffness to weight ratio. Residing beneath the egg is a the kinematic bearing, formed by a brass mount which terminates with a brass ball cap holding captive, three 1mm carbon-chrome ball bearings. This creates a high pressure, triangulated frame of reference ensuring that the centre point of the bearing can never change. It is a beautifully simple, yet highly precise and stable design.

Internally the tonearm is wired with silk covered litz wire, terminated with gold plated RCA Phono plugs. Other features include a solid carbon fibre arm board to support the tonearm when not in use.