To be honest the more I think about this the more tempted I am to go with my original plan of the L70's own arm in it’s original place plus my Hadcock 242 on the back. I’ve sized it up with the mounting template and the detached top arm of the Hadcock and it doesn’t look like it would be anything like as awkward to use as I initially suspected, one can easily see the cart / stylus so accurate cuing should not be an issue.
The problem I'm having is that the Hadcock is not just a good arm, it’s a bloody superb one. The 12” arms within my financial range are either entirely unknown quantities (e.g. Denon), or 70s throwbacks like the SME 3012, which lets be honest is only a 3009 suffering from gigantism. If one forgets the ‘collectability’ it’s a sub-RB300 quality arm, just a bit longer. Ok, it's apparently good for an SPU, but they cost way more than I like spending on carts so look unlikely as a proposition. The vintage Orts are probably nice arms, but they probably need rebuilding, plus they lack anti-skate and I’m way too much of a geeky record collector to want to play the records that I really care about in that scenario (one groove wall definitely wears faster). The Denon 302 seems to lack anti-skate too. If I could afford a FR66, Ikeda or something it might be a goer, but again it’s a big assumption that even these would be better than the 242.
I’m just thinking out loud here. I’m deliberately not going to make any decision until well into next year, but where I am right now is use the L70 arm for 78s (I actually have a few, none of which I’ve even heard!) with a Pickering MM and then stick a DL-304 in the Hadcock. That way I can use both ‘sides’ of the Dynavector P100, i.e. I wouldn’t need to fiddle with any leads. Plus a L70 arm is a nice way of filling the holes in the top plate and keeping it all looking authentic / retro. I really want the end result to look like it could have been built at any time over the past 30 or 40 years. I did a swap recently on the Lenco forum with a few L70 bits ‘n’ bobs I had knocking about for an apparently mint L70 arm that’s been to AudioOrigami for a Cardas rewire & bearing setup so I should have a decent one to play with.
Tony.