Jack Roberts, writer for online publication Dagogo posted his review of the new AMG 12JT Turbo tonearm. Roberts, an AMG aficionado has used an AMG Viella V12 turntable and 12J2 tonearm as his reference turntable for over four years said of the new tonearm, “From the first LP I played I knew there was something special about how my system sounded with the [12JT] Turbo tonearm.”
On his first impressions of the tonearm Roberts noted, “it simply looks of precision and impressive build quality.” As the name implies, he was able to set up the tonearm incredibly fast stating “the cartridge mounting system is ingenious and makes setting up the geometry a less than five-minute job if you use the jig that comes with the arm.”
Roberts listened to the tonearm with a variety of cartridges including the DS Audio DS-W1 optical cartridge where he mused, “The first two things that jumped out at me are how much more stable the imaging was and how much better the bass was controlled.” Roberts continues, “They sounded more like real instruments and less like a phono cartridge retrieving music from a record groove.” He also spent considerable time using the AMG Teatro moving coil cartridge and noticed an even greater difference: “This tonearm allows the Teatro to almost rival the Soundsmith Strain Gauge or the new Optical DS cartridge.”
Roberts concludes by saying “the two twelve-inch arms from AMG are the two best tonearms I have ever used, but if you can afford the difference get the Turbo.”