Transrotor TRA 9 12" Tonearms can be found here!
The Transrotor TRA 9 12" tonearm is a medium‑heavy, gimballed arm designed as Transrotor’s own reference partner for their high-mass turntables, combining a long effective length with very low mechanical resonance for modern MC cartridges.
Design and geometry
The 12" TRA 9 has an effective length of approximately 308.2 mm, giving lower tracking error and distortion than a 9" arm when properly aligned.
It is a classic fixed‑headshell, gimbal‑bearing design, prioritizing rigid coupling and precise azimuth and geometry over removable‑headshell convenience.
Arm tube and resonance control
The arm tube uses a double‑walled construction made from two different aluminum alloys nested together to maximize stiffness while suppressing ringing and standing waves.
Conical sectioning and careful wall‑thickness tuning help keep the tube effectively resonance‑free across the audio band, supporting high‑resolution cartridges without added coloration.
Materials and mechanical construction
Critical parts are machined from a mix of aluminum alloy, stainless steel, brass, ceramics, engineering plastics, and selected magnetic materials, with decorative and protective chrome, gold, and ruthenium finishes on some versions.
Interchangeable brass‑loaded counterweights in an aluminum carrier allow correct balancing and tracking‑force setting across a wide spread of cartridge masses, making the arm broadly compatible.
Adjustments and usability
VTA/height is set via two external screw‑in pillars that raise or lower the arm tube parallel to the record surface, making repeatable adjustments straightforward once the pillar height is marked.
Anti‑skate is magnetically generated and finely adjustable via a threaded mechanism, with a reference mark around 1.8 g as a central setting to match typical MC tracking forces.
Wiring and connectivity
Internal wiring is pure silver van den Hul “Seven Stream” cable, with oxygen‑free insulation and silicone damping sleeves used both for protection and mechanical decoupling.
The external loom is the same silver conductor type, about 1.3 m long, terminated in high‑conductivity WBT RCA or XLR connectors depending on version, giving the arm a continuous silver signal path from cartridge pins to phono stage.
Effective mass and cartridge matching
With an effective mass of about 18 g, the TRA 9 sits in the medium‑heavy category, pairing especially well with low‑ to medium‑compliance moving‑coil designs, including many modern reference MCs.
The combination of 12" geometry, moderate‑high effective mass, rigid tube, and low‑loss silver wiring positions the TRA 9 12" as a high‑end tonearm aimed at resolving, full‑scale analog systems where tracking precision and tonal neutrality are priorities.
TRA Studio Tonearm
Material: Aluminum alloy, stainless steel, brass, magnetic material, engineering plastics, silver, anodized, chrome, gold, ruthenium
Counterweight: Stainless steel with screw-on additional weights
Height adjustment: Two screw-in adjustment screws lift the tonearm in parallel
Anti-skating: Magnetic via a fine thread, very precisely adjustable, center setting 1.8 p (gram) (red line)
Cabling: Van den Hul, silver-plated cable lugs
Connection cable: Van den Hul 502
Connectors: Cinch (WBT) or XLR special highly conductive coating
Effective tonearm length: 232.8 mm (9 inches) , 308.2 mm (12 inches)
Tone arm distance: 232.8 mm (9 inches) , 308.2 mm (12 inches)
TRA-9 Tonearm
Material: Aluminum alloy, stainless steel, brass, ceramic, magnetic material, engineering plastics, silver, anodized, chrome, gold, ruthenium
Tonearm tube: Double tonearm tube made of 2 different aluminum alloys, nested, rigid and resonance-free
Counterweights: Aluminum alloy with interchangeable brass weights (depending on system weight)
Height adjustment: 2 screw-in adjustment screws lift the tonearm in parallel
Anti-skating: Magnetically adjustable very precisely via a fine thread, center setting 1.8 p (gram) (red line)
Cabling: Pure silver cable (4x Seven Stream van den Hul), oxygen-free insulation on the outside and inside with silicone tubing, protected and damped, connections with silver solder, silver-plated system connection cable lugs Connection cable: Pure silver cable (same material as inner cable), oxygen-free insulation
Connector plug: RCA or XLR special highly conductive coating (WBT)
Effective tonearm length: 232.8 mm (9 inches) , 308.2 mm (12 inches)
Tone arm distance: 232.8 mm (9 inches) , 308.2 mm (12 inches)
Effective mass: 18 grams (medium-heavy)
Connection cable: Length approx. 130 cmPure silver (van den Hul)