Audiomods Version 6 Tonearm

He hasn't posted any info publicly yet. You have to email him directly. If you want to pm me your email address, I'll send you the pdf sell sheet that he emailed to me.

 

The tonearm is awesome. The presentation was very detailed and classy. Sound? Incredible. For now, I'm using an Ortofon 2M Black that is not quite broken in yet. Setup was a breeze (Thorens TD-350).

 

I posted a few pics over at The Art Of Sound: Audiomods Series 6 Tonearm

 

But it's just a picture of a tonearm in a box, don't you have a picture of it mounted on the table and spinning records? Those are a lot more fun to view

 

Did you have to change the screws that came with your cartridge? it seems the screw heads of my soundsmith cartridge have too large a diameter to let the arm end slide between the screws to mount.. which seems odd. I would assume soundsmith would use a standard screw.

 

Had to dismantle the headshell of one of my Technics that I use strictly for mixing. The Ortofon DJ headshells came with a smaller head m2.5 screw.. So far so sweet! I would have never believed a tonearm upgrade would bring such an immediate improvement. I use a Dr. Feickert protractor for setup and I'm OC/Neurotic about set up being spot on so the differences between the setup on the two arms couldn't have been much if any. The soundstage seems to be much more detailed and the instruments well planted. Tonally it seems to be nicely balanced and the midrange seems to be more punchy. I'll definitely have to give it a thorough run through of familiar vinyl.

Also, the neighbor got a good show through my big kitchen window watching me act like a weirdo with a magnifying glass and a reading light.. No telling how long she was watching but she texted me a 'wtf are you doing' text towards the end of set up lol

 

Sweet set-up. What turntable are you using?

 

Thank you. Thats an Isokinetik deck with the 25 mm acrylic platter.

 

Thanks for the pics and report! I have to say I am a little disappointed with the fit and finish on that headshell, as well as the antiskate and, to an extent, the arm rest. My Series 5 is practically flawless. I wonder if this is a factor of being so early in the production run. That said I'm still very tempted to upgrade, for the azimuth adjustment at the very least. Let us know how you feel about it as it you fine tune it!

 

I hope someone does a shootout between the V vs VI soon.

 

As a current user of the micrometer V, I'm interested in that & whether I should pay to upgrade it to the VI for azimuth adjustment & ease of mounting/changing cartridges.

The only niggling question in my mind is over the carbon fibre arm. I know Graham Slee quite well & he is obsessive about his products having effective screening against RF & air borne ultra high frequencies (.... I recall some scepticism towards non-metallic arms that don't have additional internal protection - but of course all arms have exposed wiring to the cartridge tags)

 

Carbon fibers do have some conductivity, and hence some EMI shielding, though, as you suspect, it would be much less than a metal tube. My Clearaudio carbon fiber arm has a fairly standard braided shield around the wires inside, and that braid in turn makes contact with the minimal aluminum headshell. I know some use an aluminum tube inside, and some use conductive particles in the resin, not sure what Audiomods is doing, maybe someone can ask, if it hasn't already been stated somewhere.

 

I believe the VI carbon fibre has internal bracing based on the spec sheet Jeff sent:
Audiomods series 6 tech specs.jpg

 

That is addressing stiffness/resonance & the graphs vs aluminium look impressive. I need to ask him about shielding.

 

I would like to give an update that after tinkering with the micrometer and the VTA settings, the sound has improved quite a bit however the slight bright metallic sound still persists. I’m convinced that it has to do with the use of the wrong cartridge plate as the one I used is too light. I need to install the extra copper plate that came with the accessories however I can't do it myself, sending it to a machine shop to thread the hole into the cart plate because they came unthreaded and all the screws I have are threaded. Will post my impressions and pictures once this is done over the weekend.

 

May I ask someone to look at the owners manual and tell me what is the maximum weight of the cartridge this tonearm can accept. My cart is 20 grams, quite heavy.

 

Jeff replied very promptly and satisfied my question immediately, including costs. I will arrange to upgrade the V5 arm to V6 soon.

 

Let us know how it goes. I too would like to upgrade my v5 - and the price is attractive - but I am a little leery to give up my v5 so early in the production run.

 

Will do - Jeff & I have been exchanging emails all day & his most recent was just now, mid evening UK time. In my experience, his customer service has always been exceptional.

I will not be able to objectively compare the upgrade given the time it will take for him to do the work & return it but as this is 'only' my second turntable, I am in no hurry.

 

I did not have to change the screws. I'm using an Ortofon 2M Black, for now. Screws fit perfectly.

 

I looked, but I don't see anything. Just email Jeff. I'm pretty sure that he has a way to make almost any cartridge work.

 

I think the stock screws with SS carts might be aluminum, hence the larger head. I still have to re-setup my donor cart on my Technics now so I can mix again.

 

Yeesh. I feel like an idiot. I found the culprit of the bright metallic sound that has been driving me bananas: A hifi tuning supreme fuse in my phono pre. It sounded good with my former tonearm (modded rega 251) as it made it livelier sounding. Glad that’s behind me now as I can enjoy listening to records without the metallic glaring sound.

The AM VI silver litz is completely fine!

 

I did ask Johnnie, of Audio Origami. Believe it or not, he does not know. But if I order a tonearm from him, he will make a custom counterweight, if necessary, for a 20 gram cartridge.

I was hoping that most tonearm manufacturers would publish the maximum weight of cartridge their tonearm can balance with its standard counterweight.

 

@Warren Jarrett, use the email below to contact Jeff direct - in my experience he has always been very responsive.

Audiomods arms are supplied with various accessories to accommodate most cartridges including a selection of copper and lead layers to be be added to the counterweight, together with different length assembly bolts.

[email protected]