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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
chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 
@rauliruegas thanks for your advice.

Sold my EPA-100 last year, now thinking about EPA-100 mk2 (at least) or some other budged arms you have recommended in the past here. My ex EPA-100 from seller Foxtan was deffected (loose bearing) from the start, returned to the seller to fix the problem. I got it bask soon with no problem but i can not verify is that original ruby bearing or replaced one by his vendor. He told me the vendor should add silicone fluid in the bearing part (someone has mentioned this here). Later someone told me it can be tricky as the original ruby ball can be also replaced by cheaper bearing from sl1210 arm instead. So i was not sure about my arm after his service. I just decided to get rid of it.

Later for my main system (sp10 mk2) i just bought demo Reed 3P "12 cocobolo directly from Lithuania from the manufacturer and i’m happy. I’ve met people at Reed in person, they are very friendly and provided top class service and price for me for their used early version of Reed 3P (great arm imho).

I wonder what is the fair price for Lustere GST 801 nowadays?

P.S. i have Shcick "12 tonearm but it’s for low compliacne carts mainly. I have some mid - high compliacne MM cartridges (including Stanton 980 LZS) now and i want some decent arm for second system.








chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 
Pryso
No, i don’t want Jelco since i’m looking for the arm for high compliance cartrigdes (30cu @10Hz). Jelco is not designed for high compliance as far as i know.
fleib
1,124 posts
 

Dover, I meant to say, Stevenson inner null is standard lead-out groove.

That might help understand  a particular alignment's relationship with the various parts of a record.  I'm sure you know the design goals of each alignment, but any 2 null points are a "good" alignment. If you ask why Loefgren B is lowest total error, and why A is lowest average, then you can figure what is traded off.  Maybe a graph helps see it.

Raul, you made some basic assumptions that are not necessarily true. I didn't discuss it with you because it seems fruitless and I'm under no obligation to do so. It's good you gave opinions on some arms.

analogluvr
859 posts
 
Hi raul
i compared it against a vpi 12, micro seiki ma 505, sme3. More importantly when I first got it I did experience a lack of bass. Then I learned how to set it up and it produced at least the equivalent with a better soundstage and detail. 
pryso
1,938 posts
 
chakster, twice now you've used the term "budged".  First time I thought that was a typo and you intended to say budget.  That is why I suggested Jelco.  And BTW, without checking compliance numbers I did use a couple of Grados and possibly a Shure or Stanton in my Premier FT-3 without issue.  All that was several years ago.  Anyway, I don't know what budged means.

But now you speak of Reed, Schick, EPA-100 and 100 Mk 2.  None of those are budget arms.  There was an EPA-100 Mk 2 on Ebay not long ago for around $1,800.  Your situation may be different than mine but I would not consider that a budget arm.

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