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Naim Aro "So expensive now"

koi

koi

pfm Member
Why is the Naim Aro tonearm so expensive now, dont seem to find one below a grand :mad:
 
Because they are a great arm, and more and more people know it. Such is life......(and I don't usually like Naim stuff, but the Aro is pretty special.)
 
While a grand may *seem* initially expensive, you could pay that much almost for an Ekos/Ittok that is a quarter of a century old with bad bearings. Buying a used pivoted tonearm comes with the same caveat emptors as buying a used cartridge. The Aro's unipivot bearings should last a lifetime, and the Aro is also superior in sound quality- well to me anyway. Others I know disagree about the Aro vs Ittok. Other unipivot arms can be gotten for quite a bit less (Nima, Hadcock) and should be qualitatively similar to the Aro.

Another factor is that the Aro is now discontinued, which has somewhat driven up the price for used samples. I think that Naim may still have some unfinished arm tubes that they will-to order- make a new Aro from. But it won't come cheaply.
 
it's expensive for two reasons, parasites who pick them up cheap with the sole intention of making a profit on them and idiots who will pay whatever it costs to get what they want.
 
The whole issue of bearings in conventional arms is a sticky one (sorry!). Many seem to think they are very robust and will last a lifetime with even quite rough use. Not so, they will certainly 'last' but they will not perform at their peak. The adjustments are truly tiny and the forces that can be transmited down the arm quite large. Even tighting a cartridge while the arm is mounted can damage a bearing. It isn't just the Ekos. SME bearings go out of 'true' too.I assume it is the same for any such arm. All those people prepared to pay high prices for old arms are taking a higher risk than they like to admit. SME service department could tell a few tales about the awful state of some of the bearings they see.And people pay £1000 for 20 year old Series Fives. That's no bargain at all. Whether that is a good reason to buy a ynipivot I don't know; it is certainly a good reason to buy a new arm, treat it very well and really get many years of reliable use.They are precision instruments and need treating as such.They may look big and butch but.....
 
They're only expensive because people have this idea that they're special. I've owned two and whilst they're certainly good, they're not as good as they're cracked up to be (IMHO of course). On the subject of prices, I paid £500 for a mint one in 2000 and bought an LP12/Valhalla/Aro deck in superb condition for £700 in 2006 or 2007. £1000 for the arm alone seems excessive, although you have to take into account that they're not exactly turning up for sale every day...
 
JTC said:
They're only expensive because people have this idea that they're special..
Click to expand...

Which is a good way of describing half the stuff that sells on pink fish and ebay!

I had an Aro briefly and didn't get on with it. IMHO an arm which provides a stable platform for the cart is going to be more successful, be it linear or conventional.

The Aro was designed, like so much hifi, to solve a perceived problem of the time (mid 1980s). But I can't remember what that was. Since when, like so much Naim and Linn, it's passed into mythology and people worship at the altar.
 
Look into a Roksan Nima. My guess would be that you couldn't tell the two apart in a blind test and a glance in your wallet would reveal £500 remaining.
(The clue is in the naim)
 
My Notts Omega is a unipivot and outperforms an Ittok to my ears. Unlikely to be hugely expensive. See also the SpaceArm. I've not heard a Nima, I'd like to.
 
Koi,

prices for second-hand tonearms have gone pretty ballistic all-round. It was only about 5 years ago when you could pick up a nice Ittok for about £150. They now seem to sell for at least double that. The Basik LV-V you couldn't even give away, but now they're selling for £120+ on a certain auction site.

I guess the penny has dropped that barring the lower end Rega arms and some Jelcos, there's very little else out there under £500 new.

The Aro is much loved because what it does well, it probably does best of all. But it's not for everyone, particularly if you value more the strengths of either an SME V or an Ekos. Either way, even at a grand I'd say an Aro is something of a bargain compared to alternatives. I love it, and the only arm that could probably substitute now the Aro is discontinued might just be a Graham. But then you're into much more serious money.

If you want a cheap alternative look at a Nima. It's a nice arm and I could live with it, but it's not quite up to the Aro.
 
sq225917 said:
it's expensive for two reasons, parasites who pick them up cheap with the sole intention of making a profit on them and idiots who will pay whatever it costs to get what they want.
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that seems to describe the job of greengrocers and fishmongers.
 
Another slant to the prices fetched for decent arms nowadays could be the continuing resurgence of vinyl and, as a consequence, record player upgrades.

Similarly, there seem to be fewer higher end cartridges for sale than in previous years. Decks, however, seem not to fly off the secondhand shelves as much. If these subjective observations hold water, then it's the upgrade thing manifesting itself, especially involving arms with a certain cache attached.
 
sq225917 said:
it's expensive for two reasons, parasites who pick them up cheap with the sole intention of making a profit on them and idiots who will pay whatever it costs to get what they want.
Click to expand...

Why parasites? Absolutely nothing wrong with what you describe. That's how every shopkeeper in the world makes a living.

Chris
 
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