Anyone know what this arm is on a vintage Rega Planar 2?
- Thread starter Dowser
- Start date
Craig B
Re:trophile
Yes, with the slotted screw holes baseplate mounted at 90º to normal, likely such that pivot to spindle could be optimized post plonking it into the existing Rega arm hole.
EDIT: Seems they still had to extend the headshell as far as it would go out from the arm tube in order to achieve whatever overhang they were after. This feature was a hangover from the original Helius Standard Tonearm which lacked cartridge mounting slots in the headshell; hence the need for the tonearm wiring to exit side of tube, and which appears to be have been drawn quite taut in this case.
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Craig B
Re:trophile
Agreed, the old real tree surround Planars still look great to me. The solid wood trim lends itself to easy finish restoration as well, often only needing a wipe with wood oil. If you do decide to go with a light sanding, I'd suggest staying away from glossy varnish finish, perhaps a tinted oil instead.Thanks both - what a wonderful wealth of info this place isI never heard of an Aarum - any good? It has a Rega R100 on it currently, something else I need to Google. I have zero need of another turntable, but like the look of this somehow
Ah, yes, R100 with its 'Super Hypo Catino Elliptoid' tip (an inside joke having to do with one of Rega's early flyers). Basically, this is the same thing as A&R Cambridge E77, which is to say, a decent MM.
Note that Rega specified '300 - 350 pf at phono stage input' which equates to circa 400 - 450pF tonearm wiring inclusive. By way of comparison A&R's loading specification for their 77 series was 200 to 400pF. Member @Chris recently ran through a series of loading optimization experiments with his same generator A&R P77 and may be able to advise here.
As to replacement styli, if I had one of these here, when the time came I'd have ESCo install one of their Paratrace tips (and possibly replace the suspension damper). They were the ones who put the 'P' in A&R Cambridge P77.
From the archives...
Craig B
Re:trophile
I ran the slightly dearer same vintage Aureus for a time. Not much difference wrt design, only a bit more bling and slightly larger tube diameter, really.
As long as the bearings feel good, these sound great.
Take note that the two part counterweight can be locked into position by screwing each part against the other. Should they be tight, grabbing the whole and attempting to unscrew it as one may result in the end stub unscrewing itself from the bearing block, resulting in spontaneous partial disassembly of the tonearm; including the horizontal bearings (i.e a rather interesting, if not outright shocking, undocumented feature).
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Martyn Miles
pfm Member
Thanks ‘Craig B’ for helping me remember those original Planars with the wood surround. They do look rather good...
Craig B
Re:trophile
IIRC, until Orion came in like a lion, Helius were all 210.6mm pivot to spindle, 24º offset, with 18mm overhang.
Matches up neatly with Löfgren 'A' / Baerwald alignment with nulls at 66mm and 120.89mm.
Re: the above link, overhang and offset were entered for 'Helius' with alignment set to Löfgren 'A', OH and OS are omitted for the second column entitled Löfgren 'A', with both set to calculate based upon the same 'Pivot to Spindle' distance. BTW, although the numeric results display regardless, you must be logged in to see the plotted graphs of these (with blue and orange being the identical so superimposed on the chart, with blue the dominant colour).
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Craig B
Re:trophile
You are welcome, 'Martyn Miles'.