Tonearm ...... Acos Lustre GST-801 ..... Yea/Nay

Dear @elliottbnewcombjr: I own the Lustre 801 and as @reubent posted: it's a great tonearm , I can say a top tonearm and outperformed by no one other tonearms I experienced and I experienced ( own,owned and listened. ) more that 20 tonearms.

@neonknight  posted:

"""  Its far more affordable than a Fidelity Research or SAEC, and of similar quality.  """

yes , it's more affordable but not on that " low " quality level but a way way higher quality levels than the SAEC or FR that I owned too and I mean it: the GST-801 outperformas those tonearms easy.

@bestgroove posted:

"""  Lustre 801 is tonearm for MC heavy not for MM medium or high compilance. """

this is untrue too. The 801 makes very good job with any MC/MM cartrio
dges nio matters its compliance. Is very well damped tonearm and beats even the EPA-100 and different than the EPA 100-MK2.

This one comes complete and at really good price, don't miss it: Very rare to find on that good conditions:


https://www.usaudiomart.com/details/649571086-lustre-801-tonearm/


Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.

I have a parts Gst 801. Have the heavier counterweight, a factory head shell, a cloned weight ring made od stainless steel. The wand and cue device are like new. Missing the on the fly base, but have a macined Rega style, and the magnetic vtf pieces were cracked and crumbling. But the hard to find parts are there.

Very well....do you find it useful to use the five-position damper on the back of the counterweight?

It was a mess to figure out how to assemble all the parts of the counterweight mechanism correctly when i bought my first beaten sample of GST-801. This counterweight is indeed a bit strange, there are rubber washers and a thin metal washer too. Luckily with my NOS sample everything was assembled correctly on the factory.

Are the counterweights of your Epa 100 still sealed or leaking silicon oil?
I have already had an Epa 100 overhauled with the counterweight drawing small traces of silicone oil on the outside.

Owned two samples of the EPA-100 and one EPA-100 mkII i have never seen any leakage from the counterweight. The only problem i have had with my first EPA-100 (after complete rewire with VdH silver cable) was a bad grounding of the arm, i think a person who did s job was not qualified or not tested it, he did some mistakes with a ground wire. The arm itself wasn’t perfectly grounded. So with my next samples i’m pretty much ignored the idea of rewiring, when everything is just perfect i do not want to upgrade anything (my rule number one now).

@chakster 

Very well....do you find it useful to use the five-position damper on the back of the counterweight?

Are the counterweights of your Epa 100 still sealed or leaking silicon oil?
I have already had an Epa 100 overhauled with the counterweight drawing small traces of silicone oil on the outside.

I owned, and used, a  Lustre GST-801 for about 10 years and sold it with the turntable. Wish I had kept the tonearm and ditched the turntable! Great arm when working properly.

Can you name which cartridges models you use with Epa 100?

Well, actually i upgraded from EPA-100 to the EPA-100 mkII.

On my ex EPA-100 i’ve been using those rare Technics cartridges most of the time. Also the ZYX Airy III and Premium 4D LOMC on LIVE18 headshell for some time too.

When i bought a NOS epa-100 again this year i’ve tried it with my favorite Grace LEVEL II (Sapphire) a cheaper Victor X-1IIe also was very impressive on this arm.

Lustre 801 is tonearm for MC heavy not for MM medium or high compilance.

Not really, it is very flexible with a choice of cartridges, but as i said to use higher compliance MM one need a lighweight counterweight and lightweight headshell. The stock headshell is very light. 

Two Lustre counterweight looks almost identical, but they are different in weight (look at the manual). 

The arm is fine for Mid Compliance cartridges, on my pictures you can see a very rare Pioneer PC-1000 mkII (MM) cartridge on it. 

To use MC one must add not only a higher mass counterweight, but also a high mass hingweight, then it can be used even for SPU or FR-7f i;ve been using on it too. 

@chakster 

Can you name which cartridges models you use with Epa 100?

@ elliottbnewcombjr

Lustre 801 is tonearm for MC heavy not for MM medium or high compilance.

3 must have moderate priced tonearm for any of us in my opinion.

It took a while to find a NOS, properly working sample of Lustre GST-801 for my collection (with two counterweights and additional ringweight included), previous used sample was ok, but magnetic drive, anti-skating and armlift were all defective, so make sure you’re buyin’ a working sample and pay attention to that! Normally a perfect samples goes for over $1k. If the price is lower there could be some problems, i paid just about $500 for my ex used sample, but i was happy to pay twice for a NOS later on. I’ve been using a very nice Audio Craft headshells with my Lustre. The rigweight is on, look. There must be a huge and superheavy arm stabilizer from beneath. This tonearm originally silver wired. The VTA on the fly is great, the armpipe is stainless steel. It can be used with various cartridges ONLY if you have Lustre unique counterweights (two of them, different weight) and a ring. Finding any parts separately is almost impossible. 

I owned its cheaper brother - the GST-1. It served me faithfully for 20+ years with various mc cartridges. Excellent build quality and ease of set-up/use! I regret selling it!

I have owned that arm, the 801 is a nice arm if functioning properly. The price is about market, but its not complete. There should be a auxiliary ring counterweight that goes around the regular one, needed if you run heavier cartridges. Also the head shell is not stock. 

But its a fine arm with removable head shell. Its far more affordable than a Fidelity Research or SAEC, and of similar quality. However its a medium/high mass depending on what head shell you run. So its compatible with a lot of cartridges, but not high compliance ones. 

But that price is approaching the cost of a new Audiomods too.