Ortofon RS-309D opinions

I have also wondered about the relationship between the Ortofon arms and the Jelco's. Can the bearings be that different really? Are these arms essentially a unipivot?
David12, I find it interesting that the Raven/Jelco outperformed the Origin Live arms...thats quite something considering that the Raven's arm was the MOST basic of Jelco's offerng.
I'm so interested in these Jelco arms that I'm ready to take a plunge, but the effective mass is staggering?

I've been using one for about 6 months Curio. It beats all the other arms I have which include an SME V, Origin Live Conqueror (Mk3), and Linn Ekos 2. By "beats" I mean it extracts more detail and sounds so much more "alive" than the others. From my experience with it (and the other arms)I say it's a truly great arm and at a bargain price.

I use it with an Ortofon A90 by the way, so it's easy to hear how good it is with that cartridge :).

I'm new to posting here at Audiogon although I've been reading for a while, so hello to all!

Hello Sprog,

Thanks for your opinion and welcome here on Audiogon.

I listened the Ortofon RS309D - A90 combo at Top Audio show in Milano and I agree it is a fantastic combination.
The probem is eventually with the Benz LP and unfortunately no one here owns this duo.
It would be interesting to have opinions about a Jelco 750L 12" inches with Benz LP , a cheaper combination.

Curio, I have an Ortofon AS 309S arm on my Raven One (its the 12 inch arm),and a Dynavector cartridge, and use a Synergistic Research Tricon Analog tonearm cable going to the new Fosgate phono stage and Joule Electra LA-150 Mk 2 preamp. The combo is wonderful, great sound, extremely low noise. I'd imagine the Ortofon arm is just below arms like the Graham and Triplanar (its what I could afford at the time when I also bought the Raven One from Jeff at Highwater Sound). I plan to eventually get a Graham arm, but for now I'm one happy camper. Sorry I cant offer you any feedback on the Ortofon arm with the Benz cart. As long as the arm mass provides the proper compliance with the Benz cart, I dont see how you could go wrong.--Mrmitch

What are you RS309D folks using as alignment protractors? I seriously considered buying one but was put off by its unusual geometry. I'm a big fan of arc protractors like Wallytractor and MintLP, which are apparently inappropriate for this arm.