High mass 9-12in tonearm with detachable headshell
Made by: Hamada Electric Ltd, Shizuoka, Japan
Supplied by: Timestep Distribution, UKTelephone: 01803 833 366
Web: www.glanz.tech/; www.glanztonearms.co.uk
Price: £5600

TONEARM

Glanz MH-124S
From an iconic Japanese name, associated with classic cartridges from half a century
ago, despite appearances, this new ‘S-shaped’ tonearm sounds bang up-to-date
Review: Nick Tate Lab: Paul Miller

It’s not easy designing your own
tonearm, let alone tooling up forit and looking after the precision
manufacturing and assembly. Perhaps
this explains why so few models arelaunched, and why the popular ones
seem to carry on for decades pretty muchunchanged. So when Masataka Hamada, anengineer responsible for some of Glanz’s
original products many decades ago,
decided to launch a range of tonearms,
he would have been well aware of thechallenge ahead.
First on his list was obtaining a licencefrom the family owners of the company
that first introduced the name back in the1950s – Mitachi Acoustics. Glanz tonearms
are now manufactured by Hamada Electricin Shizuoka, Japan. The range comprises
the ‘affordable’ B series, the expensive Sseries, and the reference SD model. There
are 9, 10 and 12in versions and price is thesame regardless of length, in each range.

PREMIUM PARTS
The starter Glanz arm is the MH-9B(£1499), the flagship MD-124SD costs acool £13,995 while the MH-124S reviewed
here is a sizeable £5600. The objective
is to achieve a high level of mechanicalintegrity, permitting the most fluid possible

TIMESTEP
Timestep Distribution’s Dave Cawley
has an insatiable appetite foranalogue audio, from open-reel tapedecks to turntables. The Dartmouthbased engineer spent much of his
early career in the satellite industry,then subsequently turned his hobby
into his job, retailing assorted vinylrelated goodies for over a decade
now. Last year he become Glanz’s
exclusive UK importer.

movement of the cartridge along therecord groove. An old-school approach has
been used, with no fancy shaped armtubes,
exotic glues or aerospace materials.
Rather, key parts are made from extra-hardstainless steel – even the headshell – thatare then joined together as an interference
fit. Hamada has chosen to fit four large
bearings, said to be machined to extreme
tolerances, and these are hand-inserted
using a jeweller’s hammer.
You’d expect a stainless steel tube
to ring like a bell, so great efforts havebeen made to damp it with a thin rubber
insert inlayed into theheadshell, and strategically
positioned structuresinside the armtube
itself. Furthermore, thecounterweight assembly
has layers of carbon fibre,
ABS resin and rubber todecouple it from the main
armtube, and is secured by a small screw
once the tracking weight is established.
This Glanz arm has a tremendous airof quality. The metalwork is beautifully
detailed with bevelled edges, so there’s
nothing sharp to the touch, for example.
It is lovely to handle, super silky to handcue, with vanishingly low levels of friction
discernible. The package also includes a
substantial interconnect lead, and one
MH-4S headshell (optional headshells costa hefty £425 each).

The MH-124S requires a 30mm
mounting hole which was easily
accommodated by a custom arm plate on
the Clearaudio Innovation turntable used
for this review. The UK importer, Timestep,
can assist with fitment to other decks.
Cartridges used for the review included
Lyra Dorian and Supex SD900E MCs, their
low compliance suited to the arm’s higheffective mass [see PM’s Lab Report, p43].

TURNING JAPANESEThe Glanz MH-124S might look like atonearm first designed when SaturdayNight Fever was top of thehit parade, but it sounds
bang-up-to-date. I was
taken by its combinationof neutrality and speed,
allied to a wonderfulsure-footedness. It issophisticated almost to afault, yet still has a way ofletting the music flow in an exuberant way.
Thomas Dolby’s ‘Commercial Breakup’[Golden Age Of Wireless; Venice In Peril
Records VIP1001] showed its moststriking feature – a glass-clear midband
that scythes through the mix. There wasan embarrassment of riches to be heard– Dolby’s fragile vocals, the pounding‘Like a laserguided device,
it cuts to theheart of an LP’

BELOW: The main arm wand is machinedfrom non-magnetic stainless steel, as is thedetachable headshell with its rubberdamping strip and ‘free form’cartridge mounting clamp

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synthesisers and Linn drums
thrashing away – plus the textureof everything so delicately andaccurately conveyed. Yet theMH-124S remained utterly
unflustered, totally secure in its roleeven on the dynamic crescendos.
Switch to the more complex The
Lamb Lies Down On Broadway by
Genesis [Charisma CGS 101], andit doesn’t bat an eyelid. Instead itgoes straight to the heart of therecording, like some laser-guided
homing device. Even the smallest
details in this densely packed song
seemed so effortlessly imparted thatI found myself wondering why manyother tonearms make such a mealof it. I loved the way it carried Peter
Gabriel’s vocals, eerily separatingthem out from the dense layers ofmultitracked guitars and keyboards.

SLICK SYNCOPATION
Even less expected – considering
this tonearm has none of the ‘stealthfighter’ hi-tech styling or design
touches of many rivals – was the way
it got into the swing of things. The
sense that the band were all playing
together, brilliantly syncopated with
one another, was utterly convincing.
Every musical inflection seemed
to be a coherent part of the whole:
the powerful bass guitar interplaying
with the hi-hat cymbals. Also, thevocal phrasing seemed so muchbetter pronounced, as if he was fullycommitted to the song rather thanattempting a trial run.
A third facet of the MH-124S
that really impressed was its stereo
imaging. The Genesis track sounded
exceedingly spacious and threedimensional, and inside this thevarious elements of the mix were
almost nailed to my listening roomwall. The lead vocal appeared tobe honed from granite, such wasits stability and composure. Switch
to Joe Jackson’s ‘Steppin’ Out’ABOVE: Plan view shows the offset
counterweight, bearing housing, arm lift
platform and [inset] detail of the leverand-weight bias adjust mechanism[Night And Day; A&M SP-4906],
and this was even more apparent.
The bass sequencer underpinned avast canyon-like soundscape, insidewhich instruments were locatedwith riflebolt precision.
I found myself beguiled by theway this tonearm lets the music flow
forth in an unforced way. It’s greatat doing the ‘hi-fi’ thing of capturing
every last nuance of detail on an LP,
yet doesn’t present this in a fashion
that’s dispassionate or matter-of-fact.
Whatever type of music you listen
to – be it the shuffling jazz of Dave
Brubeck’s ‘Take Five’ [Time Out;
Columbia CS 8192] or the classicrock strains of Crosby, Stills, Nash& Young’s ‘Country Girl’ [Déjà Vu;
Atlantic SD-7200] – the instruments
aren’t there just to carry the melody.
Rather, they become rhythmic
components of the whole. In otherwords, this tonearm brings you
supreme insight into the goings
on in the groove, yet still makes
everything sound all-of-a-piece.

Labreport
GLANZ MH-124S
With all its key components – including the headshell, armtube,
bearing housing, bearings, arm pillar and base – machined fromsingle billets of stainless steel, the S-series was never going to bea low/medium mass design suited to high/medium compliancepick-ups. This is especially true of the 12in variant tested here,
although its 28-30g effective mass is impressively uniform(some high-end heavyweights exhibit a higher lateral vs. verticaleffect mass) and will readily accommodate low compliance(<14cu) moving-coils with high (10g+) mass bodyshells. The
four pre-loaded radial bearings (two sealed horizontal ballraces and two vertical) are impressively free of play and offer
low <10mg friction/stiction in both planes. No oil damping
is offered to quell the fundamental arm/cartridge resonancealthough the headshell is treated with rubber to control local,
higher frequency modes. Indeed, there is very little decouplingthroughout the entire structure, the components being pressfitted without recourse to adhesives. Perhaps as a result, andalso because the offset occurs 90% along the length of what isotherwise a straight stainless tube, the resonant behaviour ofthis arm is less complex than many other S-shaped designs. The
principal bending mode occurs at a predictably low 96Hz witha ‘shoulder’ at 130Hz and high-Q, but extremely well-damped,
modes at 280Hz, 375Hz and 550Hz [see Graph, below]. PMHI-FI NEWS VERDICT
Don’t be fooled by its 1970sstyle retro appearance, for theGlanz MH-124S is an absolutely
top-tier modern tonearm whosesound quality leaves nothing
to be desired. Indeed, it easily
stands comparison with the mostrespected rival designs from thepast few decades. It is lovingly
built, beautifully finished and ajoy to use – making it extremely
good value for money, even at its
not inconsiderable price.

Sound Quality: 87%
0-------- 100

ABOVE: Cumulative resonant decay spectrum,
illustrating various bearing housing, pillar and arm
vibration modes spanning 100Hz-10kHz over 40msec

HI-FI NEWS SPECIFICATIONS
Bearing / bias type

Gimbal / lever and weight

Effective mass (vertical/lateral) / length

30g/28g / 305mm

Offset angle / overhang

20° / 15mm

Friction (vertical/lateral)<10mg / <10mg

Downforce accuracy (at 2g)–10%Cartridge weight/compliance range

10-35g (45g) / 4-14cu

Mounting Type / total weight

30mm hole / 1110g

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