Reference Tonearm · 001

Stratos

One tonearm, considered as a whole. Geometry, tube, bearing and counterweight were resolved together — as a single mechanical and acoustic problem, not a collection of separately optimised parts.

Overview
Hand-built · Scotland
Price on application
Dealer enquiries

A stylus tracking a groove begins a complete mechanical and acoustic journey. Every junction it passes through — headshell, tube, bearing, counterweight — either carries that motion faithfully or colours it. Stratos is built to hold the cartridge still and let everything unwanted leave.

Geometry
A raised headshell places the stylus tip on the horizontal bearing axis. A warped record produces pure vertical motion, without the lateral coupling conventional geometry introduces.
Arm Tube
A power-law tapered carbon composite tube with an internal transmission-line bore. Vibration is conducted along the structure and dissipated, rather than stored and reflected back into the stylus.
Counterweight
A high-mass brass counterweight, carried low and close to the bearing. Tracking force is set by gravity and stays constant as the record rises and falls.
Bearing
An offset gimbal in matched precision bearings, preloaded to remove play without adding friction. Each axis constrains only the motion it should.
Tracking Force
Pure static balance. No downforce spring — so nothing to drift with position, temperature or the passing of years. Supplied with a matched digital gauge.
Anti-Skate
A refined mechanical dial engineered to hold its setting for the life of the arm, in place of thread-and-knot arrangements that creep over time.
Built to
be lived with

Stratos is hand-built in small numbers in Scotland. The intention is not scarcity for its own sake — it is that a tonearm at this level should be assembled, measured and set by the person who designed it, to a standard that does not vary from one unit to the next.

Materials are chosen for how they manage energy and how they endure across decades of ownership, not for how they photograph. The result is an instrument meant to be understood, adjusted and enjoyed over a very long life — and to reward the system it is placed in.

The engineering approach

Enquiries

Arrange a
demonstration

Stratos is available through a small number of selected dealers in the UK and EU. For a private demonstration or dealer enquiry, please get in touch.

Enquiries
enquiries@bisonoaudio.co.uk
UK & EU Distribution