And in my opinion, looks as good as it sounds... Okay, I'll shut up now...full disclosure, I am a dealer...and was mainly trying to answer the OP questions...
Are the mounting collars on the 850 and 950 improved from the older 750D collars? Or would there still be a benefit in getting one of the Ammonite collars?
I think that I've read somewhere that they are the same, I'm sure Hugo at Ammonite would be happy to answer if you contact him.
They are the same as on the 750. On the vintage Thorens I sell, it's a moot point because the arm tube sits so low in the collar...but if your arm application requires a lot of height, the aftermarket collar works like a charm. D
Hugo’s the man....great service. So do the old collars fit the new ones? I’ve been thrilled with my 750d. When I get my 12” arm I’ll be checking these new ones out.
Thanks @ddarch. Is the damping fluid a thing of the past? Admittedly haven’t looked at these since I bought my 750 as a stop gap while I contemplated a new plinth for my td124 (the 750d will go on my office 1200mk5) Also Interesting you felt the 950 was not worth it. Can you elaborate? Many thanks!
The fluid damping is still used on the 550 arms. Although if I recall correctly, the damping fluid was not included in the box as it used to be with the 750. I believe the damping is not necessary with the 850 and the 950 due to the knife edge bearing design. I could be wrong about that. I've read some threads about why dynamic might be better than static. I guess it makes sense. All I can relate is that I've tried both on the vintage Ortofon arms, and could not note any particular difference. So it makes me wonder, if it's just one more thing that could possibly go wrong internally. That's probably just me being paranoid.
It’s surprising there’s been no proper reviews of these arms...even on the various forums there seems precious little information to be found. I really fancy the TK-850L which seems to be very fairly priced....I’m not sure what extra performance the TK-950L would bring as I don’t change cartridges that often does anyone know what advantages dynamic balance would bring?
8 months on and still no review(s) of the new TK-series. Think I'll stick with the SA-750EB or possibly step-up to a GrooveMaster II.
FWIW, I spoke to George Merrill who builds the well reviewed PolyTables and also to Dave...I wanted a 12” arm, and both recommended the new 850L over the older series. I did buy one and it seems good to me, though I am not versed enough in tone arms to make intelligent comparisons myself.
I have the TK-850S on my Technics 1200G with an Ammonite armboard. It works much better with my Koetsu than the stock arm. Overall I’m very pleased. Very smooth and transparent with good slam on the low end.
What cartridge/s are you using? I have a Jelco 750L (the previous tonearm with the gimbal bearing) as well as the Groove Master 2 (alloy armtube, Cardas wiring). The GM gives a sense of far more drama and lucidity to the music being played. Use it with an SPU or one of my 103 carts. It's a much grander experience and I'd recommend one of you think you can stretch to it. Just dismounted it in preparation for an armtube upgrade.
I agree the Ammonite collar is pretty well a must have. It's surprising to me that Jelco hasn't improved the stock collar with the newer arms and their much higher prices. An even bigger bang for the buck on the 750 Series arms is changing the stock headshell out for a Yamamoto HS-4 headshell. It's only about one gram lighter than the Jelco headshell (so may not be the choice for someone going to an extremely high compliance cartridge) but sounds significantly better and can be had for about $100 U.S. On a scale of 1-10 in terms of sonic improvements I'd give the Ammonite collar a 4 or so and the Yamamoto headshell about 8.5. It elevates the performance of the 750D considerably and would probably be a very worthwhile upgrade on the new arms as well.
But it doesn't allow for Azimuth adjustment! Every cart I have needs some little tweek to bring out its best.
