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 Fleib, I may have missed some of those metaphorical

''stairs'' involved by  Raul's ''learning curve'' but I also believe

that he missed the first ''stair'' in logic. From my study of logic

I learned that the neccesary condition to express a thought

clearly is to have one. One would think that languge is the

added condition. But consider those international gatherings

of scientist. ''Our own'' Lewm visited many so he is the right

person to explain the issue. Those gatherings imply many

 peoples from different countries all speaking different languages.

The known fact is that, say, Chanese and Japanese are not ''masters'' in English language which is considered to be standard. How then are those scientist supposed to understand each other?

Well the answer is that they have the same terminolgy belonging

to their specific science. One can also say ''the same vocabulary''.

Thst is all they need in order to understand each other about their

own subject matter.

But we also have some kind of ''common terminology'' for

our analog hobby. In our forum it is ''not done'' to criticize

anybodies English but it is obvious that Raul is difficult to

understand despite of his ''long term'' use of this language.

Anywy this is assumed by ,at least, some members. But I

think that  the reason is not the languge but the lack of clear

thoughts.

Hello all,
I'm keeping the FR66s. Many, many thanks to those who have offered advice in this endeavor. Much appreciated.

Just a little more advice please. I have three headshells in house. 

I've got the Arche w/ the aggelos leads, an LP Gear Zupreme with 1877 Phono Devils Hair leads, and a NOS Supex ( I think ) headshell that my buddy who gave me the FR66s and the Koetsu used to mount it.

I'm a little worried that the effective mass of the Arche w/ the FR66s would be too high to mate OK with the Koetsu, and maybe I should procure a lighter headshell, maybe a Ebony or other wooden Yamamoto.

Those of you who have any experience here, please advise.

As always, thanks in advance for any advice.

Cheers,     Crazy Bill


Crazy Bill,
The choice of headshells makes a significant contribution to the sound of a particular cartridge/arm combination.
I find it pointless to waste time on ’theoretical’ speculation on this subject when it is so so easy to experiment.
I have tried every type of available headshell in my FR-66s (except for the Arche) including the FR3, FR5, Yamomoto HS1-AS, Ortofon HS-8000 and various aluminium and magnesium ones.
They can all sound well with the appropriate cartridge.
FWIW I have found a rule of thumb to work most of the time...
  • Metal-bodied cartridges sound rather better with wood shells
  • Plastic-bodied cartridges sound rather better with metal shells
  • Wood-bodied cartridges sound rather better with metal or ceramic shells
Have fun.....
Crazy Bill,
I also have a Sonic Frontiers phono signature. What tubes are you using? I recently upgraded to Mullard 6DJ8's (from Sylvania) & am impressed with the change. It's always thrown a huge stage, now it has that with more presence and definition. I've been running Mullard 12AT7's for years now & will have to be making a change there soon. Thinking about Bugle Boy's. Looking for your opinion.

Thanks, Tim
Crazy bill if you have a 66S keep it!  Also have to agree with another poster that you may be well served to audition some other phonostages, no insult intended. If I could humbly recommend the Herron vtph2. Also agree with atmasphere regarding the triplanar. 
A while back I bought a 103r to see what the fuss was about. Had it on an et2 and it is pretty good, just under my reference audioquest 7000nsx. Then I mounted it to an et1 which is a massive affair. Now it matches my reference which was around 3k 25 years ago. Pretty good for a 300$ cartridge.