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
I don't know why, but I'll join in the combat....  I was using a VPI 10.5i which has the provision for damping.  If I drop a drop of damping fluid in the chamber, listening to the Benz LPS, nothing happens.  After another drop and another, the sound improves until adding another drop, shrinks the soundstage, blurs the back of the auditorium, etc.  Take one drop out with a Qtip, and perfection is again restored. 

Raul
If we have not that first new experience then we don’t know if it’s tru or it’s totally wrong. This is the subject here because no one is willing to try it.
That comment is a gross assumption that probably offends many people here and is pure conjecture. Most of the regular contributors here have been in audio for over 20 years and have considerable hands on experience to draw from.
In my case I have done precisely that. Removed both external tonearm damping and internal tonearm damping from many arms. The result in every case has been an improvement in clarity, transparency and speed.
In some cases there may be increased colourations due to the resonances in the undamped tube - but for me I prefer to take the increased clarity, transparency and speed and deal with any increased colourations by other means. As the importer for Sumiko many years ago, yes I have tried the Analogue Survival arm wrap that JCarr uses - it is a bandaid and does not cure the problem.

Raul if you read my post I said -
I do not like damping on tonearms as a general rule as it tends to suck life out of the sound and at worst smear the sound, particularly spongy or soft materials such as rubber, heat shrink, etc.
Note that I said "as a general rule" and "tends" - there are no absolutes in audio simply because as you have correctly pointed out there are many "distortions" or imperfections in all audio equipment.

Note that I also qualified the comment with "soft and lossy materials". There are many ways of damping motion or resonances without resorting to soft or lossy materials - examples are
Naim Aro - damping is effected by the bearing design, a radiused tip in a radius cup in the unipivot results in around 6db of damping - measured by Martin Colloms
Final Audio TT - uses bimetallic damping in the platter construction - copper and aluminium
Lyra Cartridges - use bimetallic damping and asymmetric profiles to minimise resonances within their cartridge structure
Final Audio TT uses a SPZ (superplastic zinc alloy) base to eliminate resonances between 10-100hz by molecular motion internally.
Black Diamond Racing carbon fibre products - use energy dissipation and profiles to remove resonances.

As regards your Dynavector Karat Nova 13D, it is incidental to the discussion on tonearms, but in my view it is no longer a Dynavector Karat Nova 13D as you claim in your ad if the cantilever is no longer a diamond cantilever of 1.3mm in length. Furthermore it is no longer original if it has been rebuilt. I took my photo of my original from side on - the same angle as your photo. The cantilever on your Dynavector Karat Nova 13D looks like an elephants trunk compared to the original. Furthermore if the cantilever is not original then the coils may also not be original. I would recommend you go back to the seller and lodge a claim as it appears that you have been mislead as to its provenance. Onselling a cartridge with misleading claims, when you hold yourself to be an expert, would leave you exposed to claims from potential purchasers. 

Dear Raul,
I am deliberately trying to stay out of the "debate".  (Perhaps you prefer that word to "argument".)  I take no sides.  I am just trying to figure out how one could shed some light on the discussion by actual experimentation.  Therefore, do not assume that I disagree with you or that you need to convince me of anything.  I think both sides have valid points, which is what makes this interesting. (There I go again; I used the word "sides", which implies argument.  But it does seem that there is at least disagreement here.)

Several more knowledgeable engineer types have urged me to invest in a sound card that is compatible with my computer, rather than to buy a stand-alone spectrum analyzer.  I am shopping now.
Fleib, I've got one of Dertonearm's UNItractors.  With it, I got him to make me a template for aligning my FR64S. I am aware also that he recommends 231.5mm for P2S.  What I don't readily understand is why the difference between 230mm and 231.5mm would make such a difference to performance, assuming that both afford two null points on the surface of an LP, which is the best anyone can do, regardless of geometry.

Fleib - 
There was a discussion on FR64 geometry earlier in this forum. I use Dertonams recommended geometry outlined here -
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/the-pivoted-arm-experiment-is-over
There is also a valuable discussion on geometry at it relates to various arms and records here -
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/uni-protractor-set-tonearm-alignment
Both these threads are well worth reading.
The general consensus from FR64S owners was that Dertonams recommendation of 231.5mm pivot to spindle was beneficial. If I recall you would expect a reduction in tracking error; I think that his theory was also based on a reduction in break torque.

Dertonam has created his own nulls (UNIDIN) based on the records in his collection. They are available with his Acoustical Systems Smartractor alignment tools.  As you would know the optimum null points in an ideal world would be chosen based on your record collection. eg. a classical collection from the 50's/60's with a small runout groove vs a vintage jazz collection with a longer run out groove.

As I don't have the Smartractor I am using his recommended 231.5 pivot to stylus distance and the Dennesen protractor which uses Baerwald. This was Dertonams recommended protractor prior to his own.

I have compared the 2 P2S alignments with several cartridges in the FR64S including the Dynavector Karat Nova 13D, Koetsu Black, Victor X1 (original with beryllium cantilever/shibata tip, Denon 103D, Ikeda and in all instances I get a more natural sound, much larger soundstage and increased transparency within the soundstageusing the 231.5 P2S.