Tonearm recommendation


Hello all,
Recently procured a Feickert Blackbird w/ the Jelco 12 inch tonearm.
The table is really good, and its a keeper. The Jelco is also very good, but not as good as my Fidelity Research FR66s. So the Jelco will eventually hit Ebay, and the question remains do I keep the FR66s or sell that and buy something modern in the 5-6 K range. My only point of reference is my old JMW-10 on my Aries MK1, so I don't know how the FR66s would compare to a modern arm. So I'd like to rely on the collective knowledge and experience of this group for a recommendation.

Keep the FR66s, or go modern in the 5-6K range, say a Moerch DP8 or maybe an SME.

Any and all thoughts and opinions are of course much appreciated.

Cheers,      Crazy Bill
wrm0325

Dear Chris, There is this German life advice or advice for

life: ''Wein, Weiber und Gesang''. I only substituted ''wein'' for

Slivovitz and ''Gesang'' for the more general expression

''music''. However my FR-64 addiction is caused by the so called

''German group'' of which Raul is /was so fond.

BTW don't  worry ; Slivovitz get better with age. Like your former

compatriote.

Look, this thread has become ridiculously long over what is in reality a very simple subject.

Having both the 66 and the Jelco (and 26 other tonearms that are not VPI's)and way more than 71 cartridges I can say that the 66 is better in so many ways it is ridiculous, that was the question.  Go out and drive a car, have some fun, the question is answered.  The real question is why would a dealer sell a table with a Jelco arm as a high end product??????????

The biggest problem I can see in this thread is customers buying stuff that a dealer recommends because you can't get it discounted.  Dealers are for the most part full of crap and would sell lettuce if they could make a living at it.  It amazes me that after 50 years of high end audio anyone believes what a dealer tells them!!!  VPI has the only table in Class A+ and three tables in Class A and yet dealers will push items you cannot get anywhere else, simply so they do not have to discount it.

Being retired I can say whatever I want to say and about whoever I want to say it, great feeling because I really know this business.  Half the turntables and arms are grossly overpriced, be careful out there, you are paying for a dealer markup, importing fees, shipping, distributor costs, and the pricing based on what they can get from some dummy with a million dollars.

Like that Jelco arm, if you knew what that cost you would puke.

Yes, I will be making the Lineage gimbaled 3D printed arm, it is amazing, and it will be reasonably priced.

The ET is one of the best arms ever made, even today it is still world class.

HW

Who would take as serious any adjustment advice from a

lawyer? The enigma is this. Nobody trust lawyers except when

one needs one. But then the one who needs one hope that his

is omnipotent. This fact encourages me for the following suggestions

for the FR 64/66 adjustments:

1, The lateral balance should be 100% level in order to keep  the       pressure on both bearings equal;

2, The anti-skate should be at its minimum with the small weight;

3, The original headshell should be substituted for ,say, Orsonic

(the heavy kind), Sumiko or Arche (the best);

4. One should experiment with dynamic and static VTF. One third

dynamic two third static. Dover suggested this method to me.


Why is everyone so much against Raul's opinions.  This site is for interested parties to discuss...not to degrade others or their views.  Let Raul tell us of his findings, and spur us to examine .....accept or reject those findings to satisfy our own selves.  This place suppose to be fun.  I'm a violinist, and I know my violin sounds different everywhere I go...and different the way I hear it under my chin, or on recordings.  Let everyone relax and enjoy the value that music brings to us.

Hi Stingreen, Any discussion should result in at least some

dispute to be interesting. Otherwise ''it'' will be boring.

Now considering your violin ''argument''. I never understood

why all those composers wrote for this anemic, shrill and shabby

looking and sounding instrument in any orchestra?

As you confessed yourself the ''thing'' sounds different everywhere

and even under your own chin. What about our expensive speakers

and the rest of our equaly expensieve other gear? Well independent

from the amount of money spend I have never heard any violin

sounding well. Or , to be more  pricise, as it should in the so

called ''reality''. One should listen to the guitar music instead.

The strings are fast the fundamentals as easy to hear as the

harmonics an ideal instrument to judge any system. Even better

to judge carts. That is anyway what I do.