Tonearm »10.5« 
The »10.5« is considered one of the best tonearms in the world and is used as a reference (and highly recommended) by magazines and reviewers alike throughout the world. The »10.5« is a true allaround tonearm. With a dynamic mass of 12 grams, it works well with any modern cartridge; and with 10.5'' length, it is still short enough for most turntables designed for 9-inch arms, yet also long enough for 12-inch arm bases. For optimum resonance control and high torsional stability, the »10.5« is made from aluminum and stainless steel; a high tech synthetic material is also used. For the same reasons, the headshell is nondetachable and the surface of the arm tube has also been treated with special anodizing. A double gimballed suspension, with precision ball bearings free of play, ensures precise and frictionless tracking. The vertical downforce and the dynamic mass can be adjusted over a wide range thanks to the split collar counterweight. Skating is compensated for without any contact by magnetic force. (Too bad you actually will hardly ever notice any of these efforts. Because simply put, the better a tone arm works, the more you'll hear what has been cut into the vinyl: music!)
Jules Coleman wrote in 6moons:
It is elegant, easy to set up and use. Adjustments to VTA, HTA, azimuth and tracking force are easily performed and once optimized, stable over the long term....................The Brinkmann arm is a fixed bearing. The ideal for those who adopt the fixed bearing approach is to eliminate any play in the arm. If the tonearm moves too much in response to the energy traveling from the groove through the arm, the arm will ultimately lose its stability and be unable to adequately track the record and reproduce the music accurately. No play may be the ideal but it is of course impossible to secure in practice. The fact that the ideal cannot be realized in practice has led other designers to abandon the pursuit and adopt a unipivot approach (e.g. Graham) or variations (SME's knife bearing; Schroeder's magnetic rejection; Well Tempered's strung paddle in silicon 'goop').Rather than abandon the fixed-bearing 'no play' ideal, Brinkmann, like Breuer, employs extremely small precision self-aligning ball bearings machined to very tight tolerances in Switzerland which enable the arm to approximate the fixed bearing ideal while allowing the arm to move with the least possible friction. The net effect of this approach is realized in great tracking and explosive dynamics.
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Brinkmann 10.5 | Specifications |
| Distance platter center to tonearm bearing center | 244 mm |
| Effective length | 259.8 mm |
| Overhang | 15.8 mm |
| Cartridge mount | 1/2'' connector, long holes |
| Minimum distance between mounting surface and platter top | 25 mm |
| Mounting depth | 30 mm |
| Cartridge weight | min. 4, max. 16 g |
| Dynamic mass | ca. 12 g |
| Total weight | ca. 300 g |
| Counterweight | 180 g |
| Scope of delivery | tonearm with flying leads (unterminated), tools |
| Options | tonearm with standard 5-pin connector (SME type) |
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