BennyAudio Immersion Tonearm

An unipivot tonearm with many interesting features

[BennyAudio Immersion tonearm]
[Italian version here]

Product: unipivot tonearm
Manufacturer: BennyAudio - Poland
Recommended Retail Price: 2500€ as of September 2022
Reviewer: Piero Canova - TNT Italy
Reviewed: September 2022

Introduction

If you go back to the first part of this review, you will find that the Immersion 2 set-up is based on a belt-driven turntable and a 12,5" tonearm. Since both the turntable and tonearm have several innovative features I decided to review the turntable separately from the arm, then the arm, and finally the two together. This is part two, the tonearm.

How it is made

The basic design is an unipivot construction and the sample I am reviewing is 12.5" long. Let me first describe how it is made and then the benefits we can get from it.

[BennyAudio Immersion]
[BennyAudio Immersion]
[BennyAudio Immersion]

Summarizing all the above we have an unipivot tonearm that will allow you to fit most of today's MC cartridges, that will reduce harmonic distortion, is very simple to set up, very stable and safe, and is built using excellent components.. The ingredients look right, but let's see if the plate is tasty as expected.

How does it sound

Personally, among all the components of a Hi-End system, my favorites have always been the tonearms. I have lost count of how many arms I have bought and sold in the last 20 years and the hours I have spent setting them up. To test the arm alone I used a column in stainless steel; the column is hollow and it is filled with sand and lead shot to minimize the transmission of any vibration. The turntable was a Denon DP 6000 motor unit on a custom plinth made in birch plywood and lead sheets weighing 80 Kg. As a phono stage, I decided to go for the Parasound Halo JC3 since it has in my view, a lovely synergy with the ZYX. I began the test with the usual HFFR test record to see if everything was correct and how good was the tracking.

Happy that everything was performing as usual, I moved to some serious listening. As usual, I will spare you the list of records I used and all the comparisons between my other arm on the same turntable; the result is that this is an excellent arm, performing very well with all music genres. Among its sound characteristics, what did hit me first, was the solidity of bass frequencies. Usually, unipivot arms tend to be far more musical than gimballed ones, but lighter in the lower frequencies. Here the low end is as powerful as with a gimballed arm, but without the mechanical reproduction of these last ones. The ZYX has possibly the best mid-range in the market and this arm lets it shine at its best. On the highs, it tends sometimes to be slightly open, but in my experience, this is often related to arm wand construction where carbon fiber presence is very high.

The DP 6000 is my personal choice for PRaT and the arm follows it perfectly in giving you a presentation that's very dynamic and involving. In my ranking, I put it above some very popular High-End tonearms (SME, Origin Live) and in the same league as the Morsiani CM1 and the Triplanar VII (even if this last one has a finish unrivaled by either BennyAudio or Morsiani). The only arm I had that I still consider superior is the Schroeder Reference, but not by far.

[BennyAudio Immersion]

The only two defects I can find are the need to use an arm support which could create some problems when installed on other turntables and having to use a separate cable from the tonearm to the phono stage. What puzzles me is the fact that none of us will accept soldered conductors in any of our interconnect cables but here, from the cartridge clips to the phono stage, we have four soldered joints and three RCA connectors. Now, considering that the ZYX has a tiny 0,24mV output, wouldn't you think that soldered joints and connectors can have some effect on the signal? Or if you prefer, the better performance of a Schroeder Reference is purely due to its superb construction or it is also due to the use of a single wire from cartridge terminals to RCA connectors on the phono stage side?

Conclusions

In today's world, to pay "just" 2500€ for a 12,5" arm is simply a bargain. If you consider the performance only, the Morsiani CM1will give you an equivalent level for a price but it isn't anymore in production. If the installation was a bit easier it would be an almost perfect arm.

The Gran Finale: how do the turntable and the arm sound together?

In the first part of the review, I commented on the turntable that it was just a bit short of being perfectly neutral and balanced in its reproduction. The arm is in the same line, with a very balanced and detailed reproduction of all frequencies. The two together complete the picture, with the turntable moderating the slight excess of highs while the arm gives some extra shine to the presentation of the combination. I spent almost one month listening the two together and I have also involved friends in the process. Everybody was completely in agreement that we were listening to an excellent turntable and arm and that for most of us this could be a definitive turntable. One last comment: I am convinced that, if you call Tomasz and you ask him to produce for you a 14" arm with roughly the same effective mass as the 12,5" tested here, and with single-strand wires, he would be able to do it and this arm will be a true killer.

DISCLAIMER. TNT-Audio is a 100% independent magazine that neither accepts advertising from companies nor requires readers to register or pay for subscriptions. If you wish, you can support our independent reviews via a PayPal donation. After publication of reviews, the authors do not retain samples other than on long-term loan for further evaluation or comparison with later-received gear. Hence, all contents are written free of any “editorial” or “advertising” influence, and all reviews in this publication, positive or negative, reflect the independent opinions of their respective authors. TNT-Audio will publish all manufacturer responses, subject to the reviewer's right to reply in turn.

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© Copyright 2022 Piero Canova - piero@tnt-audio.com - www.tnt-audio.com