Talea II

About the Talea II

The Durand Talea II tonearm is a meticulously crafted unipivot design developed by Joel Durand, a music professor at the University of Washington. It features a 263 mm effective length with Loefgren A geometry, an overhang of 15.66 mm, and an offset angle of 20.81 degrees. The armwand is made from carefully selected exotic hardwood, specifically Bolivian Rosewood, shaped and finished through an 11-step sanding and staining process inspired by violin bow craftsmanship. The tonearm assembly weighs approximately 2.3 lbs (1.04 kg) and uses a Swiss-made non-corrosive, non-magnetic stainless steel pivot in a sapphire jewel bearing, ensuring ideal dynamic balance without the need for outrigger weights. It offers on-the-fly fine VTA adjustment with a precise 50 TPI thread knob allowing 0.5 mm height changes per turn and a maximum range of 23 mm. Azimuth is also adjustable on the fly. The arm includes a progressive anti-skating mechanism that can be disabled if desired. Cartridge mounting is via a 1/2" mount with a cartridge plate allowing fine effective length adjustment. The Talea II is praised for its extremely quiet noise floor, wide frequency range, dynamic bandwidth, and tonal realism, making it a benchmark in high-end tonearms. It is hand-assembled and individually tuned to achieve its remarkable transparency and dynamic sound quality.