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Tonearm up-grade to fit Linn arm board?

All of the Alphason arm models fit the Linn mount. They even made a Heybrook-badged special to match the TT2 for a short period.
 
All of the Alphason arm models fit the Linn mount. They even made a Heybrook-badged special to match the TT2 for a short period.

Thank you Beobloke, another arm manufacturer that I do recall, its a surprise to me that they made a 'Heybrook' badged arm though as despite my interest the Heybrook TT never really took off whereas the speakers seemed to do well. I had a pair of HB2's and regret selling them.
 
Has a heavy counterweight for use with SPUs too. Really lovely arm, they come up secondhand quite a bit. I use one on a Thorens TD150 MkII and it's very satisfying.
 
All of the Alphason arm models fit the Linn mount. They even made a Heybrook-badged special to match the TT2 for a short period.

There was a cheapened Helius Scorpio variant with Heybrook badging also.... It was bloody awful! They actually fell to bits!
 
There was a cheapened Helius Scorpio variant with Heybrook badging also.... It was bloody awful! They actually fell to bits!
Yes, usually when one attempted to unscrew the counterweight after a long period of it having been untouched.

On my old Helius Gold, the same threaded end stub held the horizontal bearing pins in place. I suspect that they skimped on the Loctite so as not to risk fouling the bearings (or simply forgot to put any on the odd one), with the result being an inevitable user-assisted self-disassembly.
 
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A nice Ittok would be ideal. Unfortunately, everyone else thinks so too and the prices have gone stratospheric! Honestly, I'd stick with what you've got. Enjoy your albums and don't invite "upgrade-itis".
 
Honestly, I'd stick with what you've got. Enjoy your albums and don't invite "upgrade-itis".
Seems a much more serious affliction when you hyphenate it like that, Keith.:)

I do agree up to a point, however, the TT2 is certainly capable of quite a bit more than the LV-V can muster. It almost seems a shame not to try a better arm on, especially so, after so many years of standing pat.

One thing that did occur to me the other day, though, is that the 440MLb might be made to be a bit less 'exuberant' on the Basik. Specifically, I noticed some sort of Naim box on the next shelf down in the photo of Paul's deck, and this begs the question as to whether or not he is using a Naim MM input. As much as I love my wee NAITs, the company has stuck with 475pF MM input loading since the year dot. Added together with the tonearm cable capacitance, this doesn't bode well for cartridges that like to 'see' 100 - 200pF total. The electrical resonance peak will be well down into the auditory range of even us old timers; specifically, with 490mH coil inductance, the peak will be centred on 9.3kHz, and rising sharply after a dip well before that!

What say ye about your phono input, @Paul McDonough?
 
Seems a much more serious affliction when you hyphenate it like that, Keith.:)

I do agree up to a point, however, the TT2 is certainly capable of quite a bit more than the LV-V can muster. It almost seems a shame not to try a better arm on, especially so, after so many years of standing pat.

One thing that did occur to me the other day, though, is that the 440MLb might be made to be a bit less 'exuberant' on the Basik. Specifically, I noticed some sort of Naim box on the next shelf down in the photo of Paul's deck, and this begs the question as to whether or not he is using a Naim MM input. As much as I love my wee NAITs, the company has stuck with 475pF MM input loading since the year dot. Added together with the tonearm cable capacitance, this doesn't bode well for cartridges that like to 'see' 100 - 200pF total. The electrical resonance peak will be well down into the auditory range of even us old timers; specifically, with 490mH coil inductance, the peak will be centred on 9.3kHz, and rising sharply after a dip well before that!

What say ye about your phono input, @Paul McDonough?

Hi Craig, you are quite right I do own some Naim boxes (although that is under review) the box you see is a Superuniti and the phone stage is an economical box from Cambridge Audio. I bought this and the AT just after I pulled the TT out of storage to get it up and running again. Whilst I have a soft spot for my Heybrook TT2 I know that it isn’t the last word in refinement and if I did want to get really serious with vinyl I might buy a Rega 6 or such like.

I find the AT440 bearable at the moment but would probably consider a new cart to match a replacement arm. It would be nice to see what the Heybrook is capable of, but it will need to be on a budget!
 
I think the Heybrook TT2 is a great underestimated turntable and I had one a long time ago that I really enjoyed with a Zeta tonearm. What really helped was giving the bearing a good old gentle clean out with lint free cloth and a bit of white spirits IIRC and cleaning the bearing shaft too. Drying it out with clean lint free cloths, use a camera blower brush to blow out any possible dust etc and the re-oiling the bearing housing etc and set it up etc with favourite cartridge/vinyl.

I have used some of the bearing oil sold by Audio Origami and they seemed to do the trick and I think they do a cleaning kit too, it made a difference and clean the belt plus the motor pulley too so kind of a mini MOT. I think the Heybrook TT2 can use a decent tonearm and a new arm board could be made out of thick perspex put put masking tape on both sides of perspex to avoid scratches plus it's easier to draw the arm hole on it. The Rega RB series are pretty good as are the Linn Akito arms especially if the bearings have been checked over and possibly rewired etc and you have a very capable turntable that can accomodate good moving coil cartridges.
 
Thank you for your kind observations regarding my old TT2.
I bought this deck when I was a student, I was really stretching it to buy this thing and probably went without elsewhere due to its purchase. I probably should have bought the then, (and still) very popular Rega 3, but I wanted a sprung design because of issues with my family's older TT, I couldn't stretch to an LP12 and this one was about mid point between the two cost wise.

I think this is why I have stuck with it, that and not really wanting another TT !
 
I can see why you wanted to stretch to the TT2 as it was/is a good step up from the Planar 3 of the day. I guess you must have known that to have been willing to pay the extra £100 or so.

IIRC the Heybrook was about £235 without arm and the Basik LVV about £46. Planar 3 was £188 including arm. Cartridge was extra on both.
 
Pinky you might be right about the price, but will see if I can dig out the receipt.
 
It'll depend on exactly when you bought it of course. The prices I mentioned were around 1984.

It would be amazing if you still had the receipt from that long ago! I don't think the warranty would still be valid now though :D
 
I had a TT2 until I sold it on PFM a few years back; excellent deck. I replaced an original Basik Plus with an Ittok - very easy to do and gave a worthwhile upgrade.

CHE
 


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