Little Fwend Low Mk2 automatic tonearm lifter
Back in the heyday of turntables and vinyl, let’s call it the ‘70s, there were many automatic turntables that lifted the arm when it got to the end of the record, they even stopped the platter spinning and only the diligent felt the need to put the vinyl back in its sleeve. Today such machines are no longer made, the world has moved on and the turntables we have are largely manual devices; when the needle reaches the end of the record it sits in the locked groove until you lift it out.
Little Fwend from Norway thought that it would be great if any turntable could lift the arm when it reached the end of the record, and developed a lifting mechanism that does just this. It means that you can leave a record playing and not have to worry about retrieving the cartridge when it reaches the end, saving stylus wear and stopping the irritating click that some locked grooves produce.
The Little Fwend is an entirely mechanical and beautifully simple device that uses a sensor to detect when the arm has reached an appropriate point for it to be lifted. The lifting element uses a damped spring while the sensor is the wire with a small ball at its tip, you depress the lifter before putting the stylus in the groove and it gently lifts the arm when it reaches the point you choose.
Height gauge
Set up is simple if slightly fiddly, essentially you need to adjust the height of the lifter so that it sits approximately one millimetre below the arm when the stylus is in the groove. Height adjustment is via a small grub screw on one side of the base, a suitably tiny Allen key is supplied for this purpose but making small changes to the height of the rest is a little hit and miss. It might help to use a piece of card as a gauge but the gap is not critical, what really helps is to remember to push the lifting pad down prior to tweaking the height. It doesn’t move that far and I didn’t realise how sensitive the sensor is until I had accidentally popped it up a few times.
There are three Little Fwends, Low, High for thicker platters and Disco for the Technics SL-1200, the Low with Mounting Platform for Rega P8/P10 shown here is £237.
My sample was supplied with a mount made for Rega P8 and P10 turntables which have a large hole right where the arm lifter needs to be, this mount fits precisely into the large hole on these turntables and its orientation is dictated by a cut out that goes beneath the platter edge. I have a Rega Naia which has the same shape chassis as the P8/P10 so accepted this mounting albeit with the smallest of gaps between platter and mount.
The Little Fwend instructions explain how to orient the sensor, suggesting that it be placed such that it lifts when there is 15mm of run-in groove to the label. It’s quite easy to adjust where this happens by rotating the device, the P8/P10 mount has a magnet to locate it meaning that it will remain wherever you position it. On turntables with a suitable flat plinth you can use one either a transparent rubber sticker or a metal disc with double sided tape on to locate your Little Fwend. It lifts the arm by just over 3.5mm which doesn’t seem like much but it’s quite sufficient to pick the stylus out of the groove.
Rolls-Royce
The build quality is what differentiates the Little Fwend from the alternatives on the market, its price reflects the fact that it’s made in Switzerland but in return you get a beautifully machined stainless steel lifter that is made to last. The sensor or trigger antenna as they call it looks flimsy but is strong enough for the job and the whole thing is very well packed using MDF and card.
I found it very effective and easy to use, you need to remember to press it down before playing another side but as it will stop the needle reaching the vinyl this is pretty intuitive. The only drawback for Rega P8/P10 and Naia users is that it gets in the way of the dust cover which sits fairly close to the arm. What’s more critical however is that it is unlikely to influence performance; the magnet is too far from the cartridge to influence it and the absence of any electronics means that there is no danger of interference. The Little Fwend means that you can leave your vinyl spinning even if you drop off/ascend to the cosmos/get distracted and not have the tip worn down on your precious cartridge. It’s a beautifully designed and executed piece of kit.
Price:
Little Fwend Low Mk2: £185/€229
Little Fwend Low Mk2 + P8/P10 mount: £237/€249