chakster
As for buying this stuff used: I don’t buy used tires for my car. By the same reasoning, I’d never buy a used phono cartridge and would even be suspicious of one labeled "NOS." A pickup arm is too fragile for me to consider buying used. I’m glad not everyone feels the same way, though. I sold my previous arm (Fidelity Research FR-64fx) to a buddy who still uses it. It sounds as great as ever.
You must a be a rich guy if you’re buyin’ new cartridges everytime you want to experiment with different cart or tonearm. If you never tried vintage carts or arms then your experience is very limited. But i believe you may tried them long time ago if you were active back in the 80s ?I was an active audiophile in the ’80s, and the ’70s, too. Now as then, I’m not really interested in experimenting with phono cartridges and pickup arms. I buy very high quality stuff, and stay with it. My arm is an SME V that I’ve had for more than 25 years. I don’t feel any need to try another arm. Some guys like to fiddle about with arms and cartridges and that’s fine, of course. I’m in it for the music and not for chasing some elusive and dubious improvement.
As for buying this stuff used: I don’t buy used tires for my car. By the same reasoning, I’d never buy a used phono cartridge and would even be suspicious of one labeled "NOS." A pickup arm is too fragile for me to consider buying used. I’m glad not everyone feels the same way, though. I sold my previous arm (Fidelity Research FR-64fx) to a buddy who still uses it. It sounds as great as ever.