In 2026 Vienna will host the High End exhibition for the 1st time. Exiting,… and expensive! Not the entry level for a startup, but a good opportunity to meet the industry and devoted nerds. We find comfort in the fact that a number of now household names had started in a garage.
www.sambuco.net has accumulated more than 5 years of design and user experience. The SAMBUCO tonearm is now more than an alternative, it is the better alternative at it’s price. To prove that, we have developed, designed, and built a new record player that can accommodate up to four tonearms at a time, the “PLAYGROUND ff”. We called it Playground, because “Dueling Ground” would spoil the intention to have fun. The Playground ff allows for true direct listening comparisons, immediately at the turn of a switch. All the rest of the “chain” stays the same.
The Playground is designed as a sandwich chassis based on high pressure laminate and MDF. Constrained layer damping was the inspiration. The motor unit is either a DUAL EDS 1000, or a UNITRA DD only recently developed. “ff”? … for four!
For the initial comparisons we always had equal cartridges installed: Audio Technica AT95 SH, Clearaudio N1, Shure V15iii (with a Jico SAS stylus).
For the High End side event at David Haigner’s workshop (horn louds
peakers of the very best! https://www.haigner.com/ ) we welcome an established moving magnet icone, the GRACE F9 (with a Soundsmith Ruby needle!). Alex of Korfaudio.com has agreed to have his new Korf Audio TA-AF9/10 Tonearms Series II (ceramic pipe!) mounted on the Playground ff. We are excited what this direct comparison will reveal!
Many roads lead to Rome, but comparing a ceramic gimbal tonearm with a wooden unipivot tonearm does promise excitement!
Yours, Lukas of Sambuco, Vienna.
Installation Instruction in English