Fidelity Research FR-64 vs. FR-54

@nandric 

Dear chakster, You should write to my brother Don and ask where his Lustre is rewired. He got my Lustre 801 as present but the (silver) wire was broken in one of the channels. He is very happy with the result and prefer the Lustre above his Graham 2 (?) for the MC carts. 

oh, yes
I remember this story from Don. Just checked by mailbox now and you know i realized the answer is already there. Don has described full story from the start in september when i asked about external cable. Nice, so he had the same problem with old Lustre internally. Ok, his choice is Discovery Cable from Joseph De Phillip who rewired your ex Lustre silver with Discovery copper cable. That's good as it's medium priced copper litz.

@lewm 

 The Kenwood, nevertheless sounds fine, but could it be better with "better" wire?  This is what keeps us awake at night (for 5 minutes).

Haha, exactly.
It took at least 2-3 hrs to disassemble my Lustre 801 in parts for the first time, we did it. Internal tube damping doesn't looks like in the manual, but there is something inside for damping (Raul love it) in this armtube. I'm looking forward to try the arm with new wires. The magnetic tracking force works, but incorrect. I hope the magnetic (?) antiskating works, i have no idea how it works in this Lustre tonearm.     

Dear @dcbingaman : I still own the great DP-75 in a 50kg beautiful green marble plynth that on specs is over the DP-80 that I owned.

The best from Denon was and is the DP-100 even over the SP 10 MK3.

I own too The Mechanic that is very good tonearm, was the only regular tonearm where the cantilever-less Ikeda REX 9 performed good.

In the other side the Fx tonearm is way different to the 64S. Stainless steel is the worst metal to use in a non-damped tonearm against the aluminum from the Fx.

Now and this is something that almost no one take care when talking of the FR 66/64 and is that that touted ( @lewm ) high mass is the other serious problem of those arms other than the main non-damped design.

In those old years tonearm designers and TTs ones were in favor of high mass to damps its products. On tonearms was SAEC whom publicited " papers " explaining the tonearm high mass designs as their models but were totally wrong because they don't took in count how it really works the cartridge/tonearm combination along the spining LPs.

Exist no single LP that comes with precise/perfect concentric hole for the TT spindle to avoid the normal " excursions " during playback. Those " excursions " ( lateral movements. ) along the other characteristics for the cartridge very hard work ridding the LP grooves  means that  as higher the effective tonearm mass as higher p´roblems to " stop " the inside/forward to the spindle natural path of the tonearm becausrtia of those movements. 
Lower mass tonearm has lot lower problems to stop that natura inside inertia to follow in better way the LP grooves.

That dynamic mass goes against a precise and clear sound and per se produces distortions and additional to this always is that undamped tonearm design. SAEC has the same problem and in this issue the 66 is worst than the 64 and no the FR bearings are not something especial but more of the same.

@thekong 66/64 S are non-damped and the VTF mechanism always is ringing and degrading the cartridge signal integrity.

Regards and enjoy the music,
R.

Dear @lewm : """  I'm not a customer for anything to damp my FR64S, as I have no reason to believe it's a problem in my system. """

You are rigth, not a problem in your system because you have a system ( with all respect. ) where you just can't be aware of those problems: that system has non-adequated resolution or to high on everykind distortions to be aware of it.
The other situation with you ( with all respect. ) is that you do not know what to look for because you can't detect those kind of tonearm distortions because you still are not trained to do it and that's all.

I can be wrong in that FR subject but it does not matters what you think or say: J.Carr is rigth he knows a lot of audio things that you even can't imagine and because of his ignorance level knows what he was and is talking about when you just have no idea and your answers confirm it.

You are not open mind when @dcbingaman gave you the advise to try that after market damping.
Your attitude always is the same, you never say: " ok, I will try ". What do you have to lose if test it?  Tests of everykind is part of each one of us audio learning to really grow up ! ! ! ! ! 

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC,
R.