During a visit to Essen in 2013 to the offices shared by Fink Audio Consulting and the design studio dwx Thiele, I can still remember holding the prototype of the TA01 in my hands – which Helmut Thiele also brought along for a few photos during his visit to Gröbenzell. At that time, the tangentially tracking aluminum arm still had the slideable counterweight that, as measured with a laser device, had proved very effective in damping resonances during the development of the arm tube for the TD 309. In the TA01, Helmut Thiele now uses two concentric carbon fibre tubes. The space between the two, which accounts for 0.5 millimetres, is filled with a gel. This construction combines fast sound dissipation with a low self-resonance. Unlike the prototype, the cantilever that supports the tonearm bearing now happens to be a closed frame with significantly more mass. Helmut Thiele explains that this design increases both the stability of the construction and improves resonance dissipation.

In order to avoid the cantilever of the cartridge having to move the entire mass, he somewhat alleviates the process by having the arm tend towards the centre of the turntable platter by means of the design itself. This kind of "preloading" is achieved by aligning the mounting plate accordingly. He adjusts the integrated bubble level in such a way that when it is perfectly in the middle position, it does not indicate that the platform is "standing level", but is aligned with the optimal inclination. While the adjustment in an almost right angle in relation to the arm must not be changed under any circumstances, the adjustment in the longitudinal direction of the tonearm can be varied in such a way that the cantilever does not move to the right or left when the needle is lowered into the groove. This ensures that harmful lateral forces have no impact on the cantilever and the coils move centrically in the magnetic field.

The two levers that pull the frame with the tonearm bearing into position are made by Helmut Thiele from solid ebony. In the counterweight, there is an inlay made of the same material to dampen vibrations. A small ebony plate is also glued onto the aluminum headshell. It damps the headshell according to the principle of "Constrained Layer Damping": The two hard materials are damped by the viscoelastic glue, as the shearing forces that occur dissipate the energy of the resonance. Let's take another look at the force-fitting connection between the headshell and the tonearm tube: A negative cone made of metal is connected to the latter using a two-component glue, the former ends in a positive cone and is tightened with a screw at the end of the headshell. When it comes to resonance dissipation, this certainly is an ideal solution. However, if the azimuth needs to be adjusted as finely as possible, tightening a screw in the just-aligned headshell is unfortunately a bit fiddly. In case of doubt, Helmut Thiele opted for sonic advantages instead of simple handling: Brutally fixed instead of clatterly loose is the maxim here. And those who change their cartridge every couple of years or have it installed by their dealer will gladly overlook this small shortcoming in terms of operational comfort.