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Naim Aro on Technics - DIY armboard

S

Simon s

pfm Member
I have been thinking for some time of trying my Naim Aro out on the Technics 1210.

I am not aware of anyone publishing findings on how this arm might sound on the Technics
so i thought, why not give it a go ?

So my next question is: If i make a DIY armboard, what material would be best to use ? Aluminium, Perspex, Dense wood or something else ?

Second question: When working out the distance from the TT spindle to where the arm pillar sits in the armboard, am i just needing to take account of the pivot to spindle distance or am i barking up the wrong tree here ?

I believe the Pivot to spindle distance should be 211mm with the Aro (and not 212mm as in the original literature) which i believe is the same as the Ekos and Ittok Arms ? So would the alternative be to use a Linn cut armboard for Technics ?

Maybe these are really obvious points for those of you who work modding TT's but its currently causing me some vexation. Therefore i put it to the more learned here.

Any ideas or advice here ?

Thanks as ever.
 
If you enjoy DIY - then experiment. Arm boards have been made of all sorts of materials for all sorts of 'reasons'.

Otherwise buy a Linn armboard for the 1210 and off you go.
 
Polycarbonate worked better than perspex on a Rock mk2, lower noise floor, but beware of the swarf, its very sharp.
 
If you can make the arm board with an elongated hole in the SME 3/4/5 arm style you can move in base to accommodate for different fixing hole to stylus tip distances and get alignment. Have fun with the project.
 
I have been running an Ekos on a 1210 for about ten years, and now the Supatrac, on a widely-available aluminium two-piece arm board. I've always wondered whether a thicker hardwood arm board would improve things, but never got round to it, so I will be very interested in your reports of any experiments you do, even if I beat you to it.
 
Mashman said:
If you can make the arm board with an elongated hole in the SME 3/4/5 arm style you can move in base to accommodate for different fixing hole to stylus tip distances and get alignment.
Click to expand...

Possibly, i may look into this. thanks

sonddek said:
I have been running an Ekos on a 1210 for about ten years, and now the Supatrac, on a widely-available aluminium two-piece arm board. I've always wondered whether a thicker hardwood arm board would improve things, but never got round to it, so I will be very interested in your reports of any experiments you do, even if I beat you to it.
Click to expand...

I think you partly spurred me on to this in a recent post. Which armboard did you use ? I have seen people using dense woods like Ebony but i thought maybe something less exotic and sustainable may be ok to try this out. No idea if it will work at all.

Thanks for the suggestions all.
 
My arm board seems to be unbranded. I got if off ebay. I think it came from a bloke in Greece. I can't recommend it because I've never compared it to anything, and certainly the Origin Live armboard for Rega that came with my 1210 was more solidly built, being steel rather than aluminium, but that doesn't necessarily mean it would sound better.

It's just a matter of how much time one has to explore these things. An arm board to fit Technics is not exactly complicated as the mount is so well designed.
 
Hi Simon,

I fitted my Aro/DV XX-2 MkI to my Technics 1210 Mk2 a few years ago.

It was a bit of a 'cludge', using bits I had (or could easily source), but on first playing it did make me stop dead (whilst tidying up), sit down and listen.

I used a 'standard' Oracle Live Rega armboard (upside down from memory), and I used two large washers to clamp the Aro arm collar. The Aro requires 20mm diameter hole, and the Rega is 23mm. The Aro needs to be fitted off centre in the Rega cut-out to get the correct cartridge position (hence the upside down armboard).

I'd previously tried a Roksan Artimez, but the Aro was leagues ahead in sound quality (although I think the Artimez was a sub-optimal example).

Well worth a try.

Graeme.
 
graemer said:
I fitted my Aro/DV XX-2 MkI to my Technics 1210 Mk2 a few years ago.

It was a bit of a 'cludge', using bits I had (or could easily source), but on first playing it did make me stop dead (whilst tidying up), sit down and listen.

I used a 'standard' Oracle Live Rega armboard (upside down from memory), and I used two large washers to clamp the Aro arm collar. The Aro requires 20mm diameter hole, and the Rega is 23mm. The Aro needs to be fitted off centre in the Rega cut-out to get the correct cartridge position (hence the upside down armboard).

I'd previously tried a Roksan Artimez, but the Aro was leagues ahead in sound quality (although I think the Artimez was a sub-optimal example).
Click to expand...

Thats great to hear Graeme. I actually have a Rega cut armboard so i could try that. Did you use 211mm as the reference for spindle to arm pillar distance with the Aro ? How did you deal with the arm rest without marking the deck ?

Thanks
 
sonddek said:
My arm board seems to be unbranded. I got if off ebay. I think it came from a bloke in Greece. I can't recommend it because I've never compared it to anything, and certainly the Origin Live armboard for Rega that came with my 1210 was more solidly built, being steel rather than aluminium, but that doesn't necessarily mean it would sound better.

It's just a matter of how much time one has to explore these things. An arm board to fit Technics is not exactly complicated as the mount is so well designed.
Click to expand...

I've seen these armboards on ebay and wondered what the difference was between them and the origin live ones ? There are also perspex ones which i have seen elsewhere.
 
I have a DIY armboard on my Technics with a unipivot. It is plywood.
But it isn’t an ARO.
I used to have a Rega arm on an OL armboard on my Technics. Good but boring.
 
Yes, I used the 211mm reference, but added 1.5mm, to take into account the Dynavector is 8.5mm rather than the Linn cartridges 7mm, mounting holes to stylus tip. Whether this makes a massive difference has been discussed at length previously. However it can be adjusted in this set-up.

For the arm rest, I just used a suitable block of wood (with a groove to locate the arm tube), which was held on the top plate with blu-tak. This was fine, as it was only a temporary set-up (although I used it for nearly a year in the end).
 
graemer said:
Yes, I used the 211mm reference, but added 1.5mm, to take into account the Dynavector is 8.5mm rather than the Linn cartridges 7mm, mounting holes to stylus tip. Whether this makes a massive difference has been discussed at length previously. However it can be adjusted in this set-up.

For the arm rest, I just used a suitable block of wood (with a groove to locate the arm tube), which was held on the top plate with blu-tak. This was fine, as it was only a temporary set-up (although I used it for nearly a year in the end).
Click to expand...

My next question was gonna be if you made it permanent on your Technics and if not was it the convenience factor of a different arm, or that you moved on altogether ?
 
chartz said:
I have a DIY armboard on my Technics with a unipivot. It is plywood.
But it isn’t an ARO.
I used to have a Rega arm on an OL armboard on my Technics. Good but boring.
Click to expand...

Thanks
Is that a Nima or another unipivot ? How did it sound ?
 
Simon s said:
My next question was gonna be if you made it permanent on your Technics and if not was it the convenience factor of a different arm, or that you moved on altogether ?
Click to expand...

No, I'm now running a Roksan Tabriz zi on the Technics, which solves the arm rest issue, but the counterweight is very close to the top plate. This is a standard issue with the Technics, as the arm plate is in a 'well'.

Also the Technics is only in my second system, so the Aro/DV XX-2 is back on my LP12, in the main set-up, as it gets far more use there.
 
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