JVC QL-Y7

End of the hi-fi years : electronica rules.

After having refined the drive part of its turntables in the QL-10 and TT-101 or QL-F6, the next step was care about the tonearm.
Victor went the way of Sony and its 1978 PS-B80, adding coil+magnet sensors, damping controls and all-electronic controls set within closed-loops and feedback detection devices.

The goal was to eliminate as much as possible the ED Servo (Electro-Dynamic) tonearm's own resonances and stray vibrations : there is no bearing (per se) but two motors which drive the arm's movements vertically and horizontally.

Tracking force, anti-skating and Q Damping can therefore be operated from elsewhere than the tonearm's base : the minutious mechnical controls included in the tonearm of the QL-F6 were scrapped for "micro-computer control" - a very cool word in 1980 !
VTA is adjustable with a lock on the non-electronic side of the tonearm.

Drive-wise, this is the same system as in the TT-101, even if executed with less torque - at 96,000¥ for the entire turntable, arm and electronics, it was difficult to compete with a drive that cost more without base or tonearm !

Bi-directional Servo works with a push-pull amplifier in the drive circuit : two currents are generated in each motor drive coil, one pushing and one pulling the rotor.
The result is less overshoot in speed correction, 50% increase in efficiency, 40% increase in torque and the remedy to coreless' motors lower efficiency and lower torque capability...

The base mixes diecast zinc (sub-platter & tonearm base), diecast aluminium (platter) and composite materials. To further damp external vibrations, the visible part of the base is made of Victor's staple wood multi-layering.

The very visible part being highly super-ultra glossy-shiny rosewood veneer.