Another turntable advice thread - $1000

Being able to remove the head shell, place it in a jig, then check with a protractor is much easier.
Even connecting the wiring is easier as you can take the assembly to a comfortable spot vs leaning over a table or taking the table to another location (kitchen table/work bench).

 

The bottom arm is 100% Jelco OEM. Maybe all of them, Jelco has made a ton of arms over the years.

 

Unfortunately this opens up a whole other can of worms w/r/t sonic degradation associated with removable headshells. All things equal, I prefer solid tone arms and even continuous phono cables from cartridge to phono preamp. Eliminate variables that can degrade signal and improve performance potential. The best tonearms with removable headshells are typically pretty expensive to overcome these issues.

 

Great pics. Thanks for doing that. To reply to your question I honestly don't know . I Haven't had a chance to actually compare. Would this be a case of more is less? Just guessing.

 

There are plenty of good S-shape arms out there, it's just that the one on the AT-120 is not one of them. I've owned the table and its performance paled in comparison to the "Fisher Price" looking Debut Carbon. It was also trounced by half a dozen vintage direct-drives I acquired, none of which I paid more than $250 for.

If the headshell slots and effective length permit, it's possible for an S-shape arm to achieve Lofgren-A alignment, which mathematically results in the lowest average distortion across the LP (aside from tangential-tracking arms of course). However, some brands designed their S-shape arms with a proprietary alignment - an alignment that allows one to simply square the cartridge in the headshell for convenience - though it results in higher average distortion. There is no geometric advantage to tracking. These arms nearly always have higher mass than the typical 9" straight arm, thus, they work better with lower compliance cartridges made for higher tracking forces. That's what makes them less prone to skipping under sub-prime conditions - it has nothing to do with the S or J-shape tube. Broadcast stations preferred them because they permitted any stoned hippie to swap a cart quickly.

I can't remember the last time I had a record skip with a straight arm tube, its been years. In fact, as I recall, the only arm I've encountered that had skipping problems, despite proper setup, was that on the AT-120.

 

The continuous run wiring may spec out better, just not sure how much of that one can actually hear.
Being new to removable shells...I gotta' say I'm loving it!
Ease of rolling carts, quick set up, and if wires are damaged during cart install, much easier/cheaper to fix.
Then add the ability to change the sonic signature of a cart by playing with heavier/lighter shells.
Just very versatile.

 

I don't disagree with this. It's really just my purist viewpoint. Another potential disadvantage I hear of is the rotational play between the headshell and arm during attachment which can create azimuth errors. Again, in practicality I'm not sure how much this comes into play. I'd be curious on other's thoughts...not to hijack the thread.

 

There is a very small amount of play - just need to hold in the position you want as you tighten.
And some shells have Az adjustment. The new Technics being the lightest I have been able to find with this feature

 

Could well be, I only know that they were sourced from Japan and utilised the "Linn" mount as used on the Ittok. The S - shaped one was £46 with a freebie cartridge included!

 

Yes...I’d like to get my hands on one to see how it really feels. It does have number/line markings, so at least it’s repeatable and accurate, if not as nice as the helicoid type on the others.

 

The 1500C also has the auto cue-up at the end of the record, which is a nice feature. I like having the pitch adjuster for the very rare case it is needed, but the cue-up would undoubtedly get a lot more use!

 

Well, the extra joints / connections do not improve the sound and enhance the delicate signal!

I guess for some that is a small price for the convenience of a detachable headshell and for some an unnecessary compromise.

Ever since Linn introduced the Troika back in 1986, their top of the range cartridges have featured flying leads, further reducing joins and connections. They obviously believe reducing the number of connections to be worthwhile, though this may be more significant with a low output moving coil.

Just like your Alphason arm, some manufacturers go to any length they can to preserve the delicate signal the best they can. Some realise that for the vast majority of potential customers, a small compromise is perfectly acceptable. Technics use a headshell and Rega do not, we have a choice, though personally I've always found the fixed headshell Rega to be very easy for mounting cartridges.


As the leads are soldered to the tags, you can see how the number of soldered, or worse crimped joins and connections you can have quickly mount up.

 

I started to have some hum from the connection between the headshell and the arm tube in my Technics SL-1210GR. If I twisted the headshell a bit the hum would disappear. I tried a different headshell, same hum. I began to think I had damaged the arm connections while twisting the headshell to set azimuth. That would be a pain. But then I bought a cheap stock Technics headshell some months ago and have had no hum at all ever since, so not sure what was causing that.

Anyway, as much as I like the detachable headshell, it is one more connection after all, of course, so one more thing to be careful with.

 

Actually this is not accurate. The hum would disappear when I loosened the connection, just a tiny bit, not when I twisted the headshell, as far as I remember.

 

28 extra connections in the signal path (7 per wire) is pretty substantial, but sure, almost impossible to make a direct comparison with all else being equal. And tightening the SME type headshell connector can also put a substantial stress on the tonearm bearings, but again, hard to determine how much is too much. There's a lot of more important things to worry about, but from a philosophical viewpoint, I tend to favor a straight tonearm with rigid headshell coupling, with azimuth and overhang adjustments moved back closer to the pivot point. It's all a compromise, so no right answer to all the questions.

 

aside from being more tolerant of less than gyroscope grade bearings, the "bent" arm form also provides for an inexpensive shot at resonance control/desirable resonance points
think a piece of bent metal (sheet or tube) always behaves differently than flat or straight - strength and resonance frequency(s) - by bending or curving the tube you could add effective length - resonance wise - in the same space
and just for the record both of my tonearms are of the crooked variety - so I'm not picking sides here - just calling 'em like I see 'em (or, "like it is", if you prefer)
good arms from both schools
Michael

 

Oh, I wouldn’t worry about Automated too much... he lives in a strange sort of bubble from 1969 I think.

Not only is he into the odd ‘curved arms are just BETTER!’ claptrap in an era where most top arms are straight, but he’s also told me that he’s heard pretty much ‘all’ the top audiophile ‘tables, and that ‘they didn’t sound better than his AT-LP120, just different’.

So, that’s sort of what your dealing with here, and I don’t think there’s any need to take him very seriously. I sure don’t.

Oh, and he gets really really mad if you disagree with him too.
.

 

Personally, I don't think there's much reason to take any of us very seriously. I know I don't

 

Eh, there’s degrees.
.

 

AE seems to be speaking mostly from his own experiences, not expressing views based on reading reviews or watching videos, he's lived a lot of audio and I don't have any problem with him expressing his opinions here, even though I disagree with some of his truths. I disagree with a lot of stuff posted here, and I'm sure it works in reverse too. I'm not gonna disrespect him for his beliefs, that's all I meant

 

Whereas I disrespect him for never listening to anyone or anything but himself, and getting angry when others disagree with him.

Trust me, from past experience, he’s not fun.
.

 

Ah, so it's the removable headshell rather than the S-shaped arm that makes it more convenient for you. Fair enough, though I find VTA a little easier with a straight (though not tapered!) arm.

By far the largest number of cartridges I fitted were to Rega RB300 and RB250 arms followed by various Linn arm and having fitted hundreds, it becomes second nature. I once damaged a tag on a RB300, luckily my only accident, Rega managed to get a bag of spare tags in the post the next day - probably still unused 30 years later!

Obviously having good tools, lighting and a jig (adapted the Linn jig for using Regas) for the turntable made life easier, but I personally find fitting and alignment easier with the arm on the turntable and in the case of the Linn arms remove the arm from the turntable to tighten them up, which takes a couple of minutes with a Linn jig. When installing in the customer's home, simply took the jig, tools and a lamp that attached the jig leg to make life easy.

What has come as a total surprise to me is the cartridge and stylus swapping that goes on. In my retail years I think I sold maybe six Rega 78s and was asked about mono cartridges less than that. I obviously understand the benefit to owners of 78s and a lot of mono pressings being able to easily swap out headshells for a 78 cartridge and / or specialist mono cartridge.

With the customers I knew from four retail outlets, I'm not aware of one who swapped out cartridges for different sound. It was the era of turntables and GIGO and they tended to buy the best turntable they could afford, then arm and lastly cartridge, a turntable power supply upgrade giving a far bigger upgrade than a cartridge upgrade. This seemed to work very well fir obtainingtthe best sound for the least money.

Of course playing records is a hobby and people can do whatever they like to enjoy their music, but obviously you can get a far better sound buying one cartridge, than by splitting the budget several ways. I was simply unaware of how many cartridge swap, until reading it on this forum.....

Edit. I know that there used to be more brick and mortar dealers and in the UK most people would have a good dealer not that far away, but back in the eighties and nineties it was expected for the dealer to fit and align the cartridge.

 

The one thing that I will say regarding skipping vinyl is that from my only S-shaped arm on a Rega Planar 3 from 1979 and all the straight arms that followed until mothballing my turntable a decade ago, out of around 6,000 LPs, 7 and 12" inch singles, I have honestly never had a single record jump, all cartridges tracking around 1.7g.

I have very occasionally heard sticking and jumping records over the radio.

 

Don’t worry, that ship has sailed.