yuckyamson
pfm Member
Yes. the AE-1 was f*cking amazing.
IIRC, an RB1000 was once considered tops for an LP12.
..by all accounts, Audio Origami are the go to guys for repairs and servicing on old Linn arms.
I love a lot of Linn’s products, they are properly excellent and despite what some people say, for the most part, they have real longevity... but Linn aren’t great for service support on legacy products and their out of warranty servicing is a little expensive... it never used to be this way, I once blew up my Linn Majik I amplifier and the repair was £150... my amp had a couple of blemishes so I enquired about the cost of replacing the affected panels... no charge, I essentially got a new amp, and with a rather decent phono stage thrown in too (my amp was originally a line level version). Another good deed was when I bought a cosmetically challenged LK100, I called to enquire about availability and pricing of a new face panel... Laura Smith took my call, she asked for my details including my address and said she’d get back to me, about half hour later, she called and told me a new one was in the post, free of charge, great service. That changed when the management changed.Absolutely. Johnnie will fix anything. Linn don't want to know, they just want you to buy new stuff, but he'll happily fix your old Ittok or Ekos, rewire it, whatever you want.
Well if the arm were equally well finished and produced by a company with reliable long term support,
Presumably you’re not aware that, when it comes to the service, repair or upgrade of pretty much any arm you care to mention, Johnnie at Audio Origami is generally considered to be one of the best there is?
It's a marketing question that has too many variables to answer. In YOUR opinion the arm is better than the ekos. But if it has no pedigree or brand recognition behind it it doesn't much matter. And don't start with SAT as a comparable, that's the exception, not the rule, and that also launched with the ultimate review from the ultimate publisher.
You have to consider the following:
Is there anything innovative or unique about the design? That would be the marketing 'hook'.
Does it have certain sex appeal?
Is it flexible in terms of what it could be installed with?
How featured is it? (vta, azimuth, sra, alignment all on the fly or....?)
How well built is it? (the public will ultimately know)
And then what branding can be applied. Is there a future larger family of products or is this just a one-off. Etc.
A good starting point is Hana. They made great carts, with a history of oem, under their own name, for very cheap. They sold and got well reviewed. Then they introduced a pricier guy. Now they have earned the right to an expensive one.
It's too tough to answer "if my tonearm kicks an ekos arse how much can I charge?" because there are too many unknowns. But the simple answer is that until you've established a brand, you have to start much, much cheaper.
Absolutely. Johnnie will fix anything. Linn don't want to know, they just want you to buy new stuff, but he'll happily fix your old Ittok or Ekos, rewire it, whatever you want.
This arm is designed so that no specialist maintenance is necessary. It should last forever without degradation of performance. There is no lube. There are no gimbals/races. It is a type of stabilised uni-pivot which is impervious to wear of the spike.
A bit more info here:
http://supatrac.com/
Thanks, interesting, though I can't quite picture a sideways unipivot, I assume you are currently using a prototype ?
A bit more info here..
Thanks - that was a really helpful answer, lots of considerations and a vote for coming in cheaper to start with rather than Veblen from kick-off.
In response to specific questions you raised:
Q: Is there anything innovative or unique about the design? That would be the marketing 'hook'.
A: Yes, the bearing is not quite like any other bearing I've seen. It is a unipivot but the point points away from the stylus in order to oppose stylus drag.
Q: Does it have certain sex appeal?
A: the cleverness of the bearing may appeal to an engineering-minded person, but the USP has to be the sound: I get frisky every time I listen.
Q: Is it flexible in terms of what it could be installed with?
A: It will be drop-in on Linn, Rega, SME mounts. It should be light enough for mounting on a Sondek or other suspended deck.There should be no problem with a variety of lengths too.
Q: How featured is it? (vta, azimuth, sra, alignment all on the fly or....?)
A: VTA but not on the fly, azimuth on the fly, although a steady hand needed on suspended decks, alignment by the standard method of two slots.
Q: How well built is it? (the public will ultimately know)
A: The design requires no precision engineering at all and should last forever without any significant maintenance spend. The build quality is therefore mostly a question of finish.
Q: And then what branding can be applied. Is there a future larger family of products or is this just a one-off. Etc.
A: Options for different wand materials and convenient adjustment controls are there as with any other arm. It is the bearing design which makes it work distinctively. If a patent is granted it could be licenced to other arm makers.
As you know, I've had a parallel experience with loudspeakers. In fact, I think one of the longest running threads in PFM was titled Pricing of and Demand for Small Loudspeakers or something like that. I started that thread to gauge whether I should commercialise the E-IX. The Ergo brand had no cachet, and there is nothing particularly innovative about the E-IX - except that it sounds pretty damn good for something that is so small and compact.It's a marketing question that has too many variables to answer. In YOUR opinion the arm is better than the ekos. But if it has no pedigree or brand recognition behind it it doesn't much matter. And don't start with SAT as a comparable, that's the exception, not the rule, and that also launched with the ultimate review from the ultimate publisher.
You have to consider the following:
Is there anything innovative or unique about the design? That would be the marketing 'hook'.
Does it have certain sex appeal?
Is it flexible in terms of what it could be installed with?
How featured is it? (vta, azimuth, sra, alignment all on the fly or....?)
How well built is it? (the public will ultimately know)
And then what branding can be applied. Is there a future larger family of products or is this just a one-off. Etc.
A good starting point is Hana. They made great carts, with a history of oem, under their own name, for very cheap. They sold and got well reviewed. Then they introduced a pricier guy. Now they have earned the right to an expensive one.
It's too tough to answer "if my tonearm kicks an ekos arse how much can I charge?" because there are too many unknowns. But the simple answer is that until you've established a brand, you have to start much, much cheaper.
Thanks for your input chaps. All noted.
I have compared this arm against an Ekos II. In my opinion it knocks it into a cocked hat. The difference is energy, scale, soundstage, control of excess during difficult peaks, for example in opera crescendos, separation of instruments, timing and the overall impression of real performers doing something worthwhile. I would like to try it against the arms which I suspect it is gunning for, namely Graham, Kuzma 4point, and SAT. I would be interested in meeting people who use high end arms to make careful comparisons.
Some of you may remember that I found a couple of Garrard 301s and built solid plinths for them. The problem of providing them with arms commensurate with their true potential festered for many years, but lockdown brought the opportunity to solve this problem from first principles. More will come of this but I'm weighing up how to proceed with this project.
I will say that I'm hearing a standard of vinyl reproduction which I have never experienced before. Right now I'm listening to an old AT95 on the mystery arm and Garrard 301 and it is... ...better than satisfactory.
I have reached the conclusion that arm designs are flawed, even the 4point, and that no arm design takes seriously the problem of oscillating stylus drag in the time axis.