ARO - again?

I think you’d be in trouble if you tried to copy it exactly, but so long as everything is just slightly different and you aren’t trying to pass it off as either an ARO or as a Naim product then you’d likely be OK.

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Hi, David, I was never an intellectual property lawyer, but in order to patent something, the inventor/designer would need to show that the design was new and unique.

Yes, AFAIK its really IPR - Intellectual Property Rights - that would apply here.

The ‘Javelin’ is so similar, from what I can see, that Naim’s IPR have likely been infringed. But maybe it was not worth pursuing…?

I don’t remember when Naim stopped production of the ARO, or when Tiger Paw’s tonearm was released, but I suspect that the two were never on sale to the public at the same time.

I am not a lawyer, let alone one who practices in IP law, but I have had a fair amount of contact with issues around patents for telecommunications. To register a patent is a non-trivial activity and that is only the beginning. Defending the patent is extremely expensive.

Proving that some aspect of an approach or design is entirely new, enabling something to happen in a better, cheaper or more effective way and that no one else has already done it (prior art) is hard. I seriously doubt that the ARO had any such features that could be patented, but of course I don’t know.

That is what we are discussing. IPR is basically copyright, trade marks and intellectual property (protected by patents).

Hello, David! From what I have read, the ARO was unique in having the needle-like spindle resting on the bearing. Previous unipivot designs were the other way round, with the armtube balanced on the spindle.

But I know little (indeed nothing) about tonearm design, so I will leave it to others who know better.

I’m afraid not, the Decca International was the same. Perhaps others too.

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Okay, I did not know that.

Over a different Naim topic i spoke to JV about patents ages ago and he said they had none and wasn’t worth the effort or cost in fighting should an issue arise.

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Intriguing idea Peter, I look forward to hearing how you get on !

I’ve never heard an Aro or Javelin but it would be (have been) notable if the latter were at least as good or even perhaps even a bit better than the Naim arm, given that TP was in effect a one man operation ( or very near as far as I know), especially as TP were making Javelin long after the Aro ceased production, afaik. Maybe it was just different

(I remember reading pretty darn good reviews of the Javelin, but not having heard either I obviously can’t judge).

Given the name, you could see they clearly had targeted the ARO (please forgive me)

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Which would make sense, really. Aro stops production (I don’t know the reasons for the short run) and apparently leave people desparate for one, so if your peoduct replicates it (or even betters it, shock horror) why wouldnt you…

Given that there is a small finite number of AROs, any firm that produces a product that looks or sounds similar has my best wishes, successful or not. It’s a pity that it wasn’t appreciated fully in its lifetime. I have had an Aro for over 30yrs, best product I have bought, used every day. I guess Linn dealers mainly peddled Linn arms.

Following the untimely, and in my opinion, unnecessary death of the Aro 1, I approached, Roger Hamilton of Tiger Paw, and also johnnie7 of Audio origami to come up with viable alternatives/replacements. Johnny produced the Uni arm, which you may have read about elsewhere with a cup that resembled Darth Vader‘s helmet and sounded excellent. Roger came up with something that more closely resembled the original ARO and it was a truly exceptional arm using a titanium arm tube.
Very unfortunately, Roger ceased production and ceased trading with Tiger Paw in 2018, due to a recurrence of a health issue that he decided to retire rather abruptly, which was a huge shame and a great loss to the industry. In my opinion, he had some fantastic innovative ideas and I used to enjoy very much brainstorming with him.
The full javelin was excellent, but had a couple of small design issues, which I’m sure he could’ve overcome had he been able to persist with the project and Tiger Paw generally… These arms are very rare and highly desirable that are best used without the requirement for a lift/lower as the containment clip used to stick unfortunately, but I’m pretty much every other respect and certainly sonically. It was brilliant.
Additional to this, there were a very small number of hybrid javelin tops made to sit on the ARO 1 bearing. Then, maybe three or four of these arm, tops in existence, offering in my opinion, absolutely stunning sound quality. I


use one myself to this day.:sunglasses:

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IMG_2388

Naim left only a broken Aro heart

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Sorry addressed to wrong post.

I saw that some use a Kuzma 4 point on the Lp12. I am curious if someone tried?

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Cymbiosis i would love to hear more about how the Vertere arm performs on the Linn. I use and prefer the Aro to the Excellent Linn Ekos but i have always wondered if there ever was an unfixable issue with my Aro what my options would be.

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