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What’s your favourite tonearm?

rontoolsie said:
Finally a (modded) Realistic/Radioshack Lab400 turntable with its own S-arm was at least as good as my LP12/Geddon/Aro when equipped with the same Lyra Helikon SL-probably the highest end cartridge that has ever graced a Realistic turntable. That was the point when I gave up on vinyl. BTW, I tried out that Realistic on some $50,000 Wilson Maxx 2 and massive Krells, and it really was that good!
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well ... i see no reason why one might have unwittingly developed an excellent vinyl platform - despite the intentions of the 'engineer-designers' behind it! god knows a lot of people seem to be very into the technics tables these days .. sometimes luck happens. Curious though - what these 'mods' might have been? and also ... was it only the Lyra that this combo seemed to get on well with?
 
It's all ended with an Avondeal arm for me which replaced a Kuzma Stock Reference which had comfortably seen off an It OK LV II and all before it.

I had to have the Avondale arm to complete my system at the time but was not ready for the difference it wrought. Anyone else has any experience with one?

Regards

Chris
 
Currently very happy with an SME V-12 but I do have an urge to go down the high mass / low compliance route at some point in the far future eg FR66, Groovemaster, Glanz S with a nice SPU, Miyajima or Koetsu. I can dream.
 
radine said:
Currently very happy with an SME V-12 but I do have an urge to go down the high mass / low compliance route at some point in the far future eg FR66, Groovemaster, Glanz S with a nice SPU, Miyajima or Koetsu. I can dream.
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Very nice, and I seriously considered the Five-twelve to replace my Five when I changed my Orbe to a Dais. However, it was partly the increase of only
1 g in eff. mass over the Five (12 g v 11 g) that put me off, as I had a Black Goldline and Urushi. However, the Black for years and the Urushi for months, sounded very good on my Five, and would have sounded better on the V12.

I opted for the Ace Anna initially, then added a PU7 (both 12"), neither of which are more than about 14 g. Your dream choices are fine, though the Glanz really is pricey and the FR66 difficult to source. The Groovemaster's British sourced equivalent (if you can cope with the shape) is above 20 g and good v.f.m. Transfig., Benz and Lyra (among others) are fine with lower medium mass arms, but, as you say, Koetsu and especially Miyajima, would be compromised. SPU still worries me a bit with its high VTF and ancient history (and I am not really an Ortofon fan).

Having a very local dealer friend/friendly dealer in these items, I may well be persuaded to try a change this year; Ace Anna to a heavyweight and Vermillion to a Miyajima. Am keeping the Proteus and PU7).
 
Paddy said:
It's all ended with an Avondeal arm for me which replaced a Kuzma Stock Reference which had comfortably seen off an It OK LV II and all before it.

I had to have the Avondale arm to complete my system at the time but was not ready for the difference it wrought. Anyone else has any experience with one?

Regards

Chris
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Nice to know Les went beyond the project stage. I remember him proudly showing me the bearing quite some time ago.
 
johncee said:
Do you prefer the PU7 to the Anna, Mike?
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Hope he says both as good as each other, My Ace Anna betters the Alphason but I often wonder why you see so many Dais turntables not useing the range of Nottingham tonearms maybe there the weak point ?
 
Tony L said:
Rega were hugely successful prior to that, the original Planet, Planar 2 and Planar 3 were all highly desirable products. I can remember a time where the waiting list to get your hands on an original Planar 3 was over 6 months so large was the demand relative to the production capability at the time. The original Planar 3 with the R200 arm and R100 cart remains my favourite Rega product, a real design classic IMO. The RB300 was a better arm, but I was never convinced it made for a better deck on a Planar 3. The original just sounded very ‘right’ as a whole to me.
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Yes, Rega was always recommended as a cheap alternative to the LP12 by the magazines.

My arms have been...

SME Series III on a Thorens TD160
Rega RB300 on a Xerxes
Artemiz on the same Xerxes

The Rega was phenomenal value for money.
 
Mike Reed said:
Very nice, and I seriously considered the Five-twelve to replace my Five when I changed my Orbe to a Dais. However, it was partly the increase of only
1 g in eff. mass over the Five (12 g v 11 g) that put me off, as I had a Black Goldline and Urushi. However, the Black for years and the Urushi for months, sounded very good on my Five, and would have sounded better on the V12.
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I had been wondering if adding a 3gm headshell spacer to lift the eff. mass of the V-12 to 15g might be a workable solution for Koetsu so it's encouraging to know that you had some success on your Five.

Mike Reed said:
Having a very local dealer friend/friendly dealer in these items, I may well be persuaded to try a change this year; Ace Anna to a heavyweight and Vermillion to a Miyajima. Am keeping the Proteus and PU7).
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I'd be interested to learn which arm and cartridge you finally opt for and your eventual findings. Should be interesting!
 
I thought the NA arms looked a little "agricultural" as far as finishing was concerned. Once when I was demoing an NA deck something went wrong with the arm and the dealer had to end the demo.

I have heard the Ace Anna and it sounded good. However I liked the idea of being able to vary the azimuth and VTA on the fly, which is not possible with the NA arms, or at least not when I last saw one.
 
My current favorite is a Decca International (early metal head-shell version) admittedly this may be due to the number of hours i've invested in it's restoration.
 
Although I haven’t by any stretch of imagination heard all the arms mentioned here, I suspect the best conventional arms are the Funk arms. I have an FXR which is far superior to an Aro, which in turn was superior to Ittok, Ekos Nima and Rega alternatives.

The one arm which possibly trumps them all is the arm on the Well Tempered decks , but obviousLy that can not be put on any pother deck . Genius thinking
 
deserter said:
Although I haven’t by any stretch of imagination heard all the arms mentioned here, I suspect the best conventional arms are the Funk arms. I have an FXR which is far superior to an Aro, which in turn was superior to Ittok, Ekos Nima and Rega alternatives.

The one arm which possibly trumps them all is the arm on the Well Tempered decks , but obviousLy that can not be put on any pother deck . Genius thinking
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So you admit you haven't heard all arms mentioned here, yet you suspect the Funk is the best conventional tonearm... When has Funk produced anything which was regarded as "state of the art", or even reviewed as the best of the best? Have you actually seen what other tonearms are on offer, or available around the world, or what gets great reviews in the top magazines? Ever heard of SAT, Thales, Schröder?
 
johncee said:
Do you prefer the PU7 to the Anna, Mike?
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Only ergonomically, John. that little arm clip is the easiest and safest rest I've ever encountered; it's a slick one hand job as you bring the arm back from lifting.

One's a unipivot; t'other's a gimbal. Very different presentations with ANY (I guess) cart. Sonically, the Ace Anna is no slouch, and sounds great with Lyra (had a Titan i on it a year ago), also with Benz (Ebony) and Proteus. My K. prefers the gimballed arm. Someone said of the A.A. 'agricultural', and I can see that, though it's quite distinctive, but my Dais personifies 'agricultural' (i.m.o.) anyway. However, I think we're looking at the PU7 costing 2 x the A.A., so 'orses for courses.

Dozey said:
However I liked the idea of being able to vary the azimuth and VTA on the fly,
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With a fixed head-shell you shouldn't need azimuth adjustment (though it does have it; well, sort of). 'On the fly' VTA adjust is usually reserved for more expensive arms. Must admit, I'd feel a bit reluctant to fiddle with it while a multi-thousand pound cart. is playing a valuable record, however good the design.

mark121211 said:
My current favourite is a Decca International
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Wibbly wobbly woo ! Does it still use the measured length of specific grade solder for the biassing? Put onto a well suspended deck (Thorens 150 etc.), this must represent the epitome of an audio trampoline. :)

G T Audio said:
Ever heard of SAT?
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Got me there ! Presumably no standing waves? :)
 
No mention of a certain American 3D printed arm?

Not heard it but reviews have been good

Have owned R200 /RB300 / RB880 / Aro / ittok / akito etc
Have a lot of respect for the Rega arms...
 
I remember John Atkinson ( i think) in Stereophile contrasting the the Aro with the Ekos ( on an LP12) and saying that the Aro had great midrange but was beaten by the Ekos as regards bass.... That's pretty much been my experience of the (few) unipivot vs gimbal tone arms I've heard. Maybe things have moved on by now. I also much prefer to handle Gimbal tone arms.
 
deserter said:
Although I haven’t by any stretch of imagination heard all the arms mentioned here, I suspect the best conventional arms are the Funk arms. I have an FXR which is far superior to an Aro, which in turn was superior to Ittok, Ekos Nima and Rega alternatives.

The one arm which possibly trumps them all is the arm on the Well Tempered decks , but obviousLy that can not be put on any pother deck . Genius thinking
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Funk and Well Tempered stuff both fall into the same 'poor value' category for me. I look at the materials used and the finish achieved and think 'how much?' I realise that original ideas take a lot of time and effort to bring to market but...... they still seem wildly over priced. No offence to those who own and enjoy these brands - more power to you.
 
uncl_nigel said:
Nice to know Les went beyond the project stage. I remember him proudly showing me the bearing quite some time ago.
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He did indeed but very limited numbers were made as I understand it, hence when it came up for sale after the previous owner moved on to streaming, I had to have it. Love it
 
Darren said:
I remember John Atkinson ( i think) in Stereophile contrasting the the Aro with the Ekos ( on an LP12) and saying that the Aro had great midrange but was beaten by the Ekos as regards bass.... That's pretty much been my experience of the (few) unipivot vs gimbal tone arms I've heard. Maybe things have moved on by now. I also much prefer to handle Gimbal tone arms.
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Maybe not, or not that much, if you have an LP12...
 
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