Super Tweak for Nottingham Space TT

Thanks Aisip. You anticipated exactly what I was thinking about, the Shelter 501. Have read much praise about this cartridge and was hoping I could use it. Another knowledgeable Audiogoner suggested it would not be a perfect match with the Space Arm but would work. If I started out with the Stock Space Arm with some suitable cartridge, would a future upgrade to a Origin Live Silver arm and Shelter 501 be easy? I mean does that arm simply go on the Spacedeck without any modifications?

Ok, I know the OL Silver is a better match, in theory, with the 501, and may very well be in application.

On the other hand, I have a 501 in my Spacearm/Spacedeck combination. The results are excellent, and I have done a comparison to several other cartridges, costing both less and much more than the Shelter, that were supposed to be better matches in terms of compliance. I know a local dealer with 30+ years of experience who recommends the 501 with that combination and has quite a few happy buyers. Over the past six months he has A/B/C/D'd quite a number of carts on this arm and very few have been the equal of the 501.

One thing to remember about the Spacearm, at least I know this is true for the later carbon versions after a discussion with the designer - Tom Fletcher has engineered into the pivot two stabilizing rods (which you can see if you look under the pivot shell). He claims that these specifically placed bars render moot some of the concerns with regular unipivot arms. I am not technically educated enough to measure the difference made by these rods but I will say that the 501 does A LOT more than just "work" with the Spacearm. In fact, and based on experience, saying the 501 will merely "work" on a Spacearm is a total understatement and a disservice to both the arm and cartridge, though I know the person that said such had very good intentions. ;-)

Thanks 4yanx I appreciate that info and may well go with the Shelter 501 MkII on a Spacearm.

Ok, I'm the guy who said to be careful about using the 501 with a Space Arm. When I said this, I was going on theory about unipivots and lower compliance. As David says, the bars on the Space Arm make it more suitable for this type of cartridge. When I make a recommendation that I am not living with myself, I always try to be very conservative, so I don't steer somebody into a bad matchup. As we now have some more information with this particular combination of Space Arm/501, we can now go on that info. Previously, there was not much info available from Space Arm/501 users, so I had to go by the seat of my pants. Any inconvenience that was generated by this statement is regretted by me. Please understand that I was looking out for everyone's best interest in getting a workable matchup. The 501 is a great cartridge, and I highly recommend it whenever possible. I'm glad that it is working out for Space Arm users.

Tom, your explanation is EXACTLY why folks turn to you repeatedly for advise. Call it a respectful curse! :-)