RB 250 arm on a SL1200

Which do you think would give better performance:

Any one or all of the mods known for the standard arm?

Or a RB250 arm I have sitting currently on a unused NAD table?

I'd then get a AT150MLX cartridge. It's this or a new carbon debut DC, also with the AT150 cartridge if I go that route. What do you think? Thanks.

 

RB250 which itself is highly tweakable. That's be my pick.

 

Thanks BR. I'm torn between this and a carbon debut DC.

 

There are some who prefer the original arm, but personally I much prefer a Rega on mine, since I've fitted a Rega arm board on my SL1210 I've tried a RB-250, a Roksan Artemiz and a couple of different RB-300s, my personal opinion is that the standard arm is the weakest link on the Technics and replacing it is the best bang for your buck improvement you can make.

As you already have a Rega arm it's not very expensive to buy an arm board and try it, if you don't hear an improvement you can easily replace the standard arm and sell the arm board for a minimal loss, although I would say that it may be beneficial to buy and fit a VTA adjustor for the Rega at the same time. Other than lots of screws to undo swapping out the Technics arm and fitting a new board is very straighforward and doesn't require major skills or tools.

 

I'd be hard pressed to recommend the Debut. The 250 is well established and there's a stack of companies (Origin Live, Inspire) that do mods for it. Even Michell used a version of a Rega arm I think. You get a better arm in stock flavour, but the upgrades using it as a basis are plentiful. Not too pricey either.

 

So it's possible then to have VTA as you would with the stock arm if you get a VTA adjuster? Whatever that is, I'll look into it.

 

Yes, you can get a VTA adjustor for Rega arms, a few people make them, it will allow you to adjust the height of the arm and thereby the tracking angle, I don't recall the make of mine, but it is nicely made, works well and was less money than the Michell version which I use on a different arm, I'm pretty sure I came across a few other alternatives when I was looking online about three years ago now although I'm not sure what's easily available in Australia.