Tacco MK II
The SCHEU Tacco MK II is our legendary top model with the conical wooden tonearm wand made of prestigious wood – either thuja cedar or amboina pine.
Apart from ensuring maintenance of all the familiar geometric parameters, the development of the equipment also concentrated on fastidious choice of materials. Thus the actual bearing/counterweight unit is made of tungsten, allowing not only a compact design concentrating all the free-to move mass into a condensed space but also the effective suppression of resonance inside the bearing unit thanks to the high density of the metal. This method of construction means that all kinds of stored energy can be eliminated quickly and effectively.
The Tacco tonearm has a unipivot bearing. The tip of the bearing is a ruby sphere at the end of a hard metal rod. The bearing recess is set into the bearing block and is made of a leuko-(white) sapphire. This arrangement leads to extremely little internal friction and, in addition, the contact surface is well-defined, eliminating any shifting of the point of the bearing.
The Tacco is currently available as a 9-inch variant.
The Tacco II arm is an excellent arm … capable of extracting a massive amount of information off the groove, presenting a platform as neutral across the mid and top as it is deep at the bottom.
HiFi+ – 4/2013
The Tacco is characterised by its very clear and well-contoured sound reproduction with highly pure bass and an outstandingly fine reproduction of treble. Voices are reproduced in extremely natural fashion.
Choice of WoodThe conical wooden tonearm wand is available of either thuja cedar or amboina pine.
Arm Length
We do offer the Tacco as a 9-inch tonearm.
Tonearm Cable
Our tonearm cables are supplied in a standard length measuring 1.15 m from the base of the tonearm. Alternative lengths, as well as symmetric wiring (XLR), can also be provided on request. However, to maintain an optimum musical experience, the length of the cable should not exceed 1.5 m. If the wiring needs to cover a longer distance, then employ a generous length of cable between the phono pre-amp and the main amplifier, as this cable – assuming high-quality cable is used – will exhibit only a fraction of the resistance of a slender tonearm cable. For example, we recommend using “backbone” low frequency cables from Audictive for this purpose.
The Scheu Analog Tonearm Cable
A cable for a tonearm needs to encompass a lot of attributes. It needs to be very light and flexible, so that the needle does not experience any unnecessary loading during its sensitive work inside the groove, which might engulf the very fine details of the sound. At the same time, the cable needs to handle the delicate audio signal from the stylus with utmost gentleness in order to convey all the intricate components of the recorded sound to the pre-amp without any distortion.
We can now supply this key part of a record player specially attuned in SCHEU Analog fashion. We consulted with analogue cable specialists “Audictive” and worked with them to develop a tonearm cable specifically adapted to the requirements of our high-quality phono arms with single-point bearings.
The new SCHEU tonearm cable provides you with incomparably good sound. Voices hover in poignant detail in the room, the attack of the instruments sounds crisper than ever before and the bass growls richly and precisely from the speakers in the deep registers.
Beneath the inconspicuous black sleeves of our cables we have made use of multiple, highly optimised materials in order to achieve such stunning results.
The signal is conveyed along a conductor consisting of 42 separate copper-alloy wires bundled together, each of them no more than 0.025 mm in diameter. Each of these finespun wires is coated with silver to ensure outstanding transmission of the audio signal in spite of an overall cross section measuring only 0.021 mm². The resistance of the conductor is only about 1 ohm per metre. The insulation is made of fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP), a material possessing superb dielectric properties which also combines great flexibility and excellent chemical resistance.
Two of these conductors are twisted together for each channel to provide basic protection against external radio interference. From the base of the tonearm, the twisted pair carrying the signal is enclosed in a tough Teflon sleeve (DuPont trade mark), which provides protection against mechanical stresses without adversely affecting the electrical properties of the wire. A fine weave of galvanised copper encloses this sleeve and serves as a second protective layer against external interference. The woven screen is connected to the housing of your phono pre-amp via the earth lead.
“It’s a jewel of an arm … The Tacco II arm is an excellent arm … capable of extracting a massive amount of information off the groove, presenting a platform as neutral across the mid and top as it is deep at the bottom.”
HiFi+ – 4/2013 (link test report)
“The Tacco has a crystal clear and contured sound with a very clean bass and an extraordinary fine drawing of the treble. Voices are expressed very naturally.”
LP – 2/2010
Functional principle:Conical wooden tonearm on a unipivot sapphire bearing
- Arm length: 9-inch
- Effective length: 238 mm
- Effective mass: 14 to 16 gr, depending on the choice of wood
- Overhang: 16 mm
- Distance from pivot to spindle: 222 mm