Refurbish Fidelity Research Tonearms

and if it’s not broken do to waste your money on all these nonsense

Chakster, may I ask what’s your problem?

no idea about the arm before / after and you write such an comment.
One man’s ceiling is another man’s floor …Or just being a pretentious ignorant?

Thanks @chakster I will look into moving the arm lift mechanism. 

@syntax when there is a problem with bearings on 64s I can understand it (this is a complicated job, indeed) and very old tonearm, but a poster above asked for FX model in mint condition!


Tonearm rewire is very simple process, replacement of the DIN is also very simple process for technicians. I remember how we rewired/refurbished my Lustre GST-801 tonearm and replaced DIN connector with a friend. Took one hour or so, cost nothing. Any tech can do that for $100-150.



I gonna replace the grease on my FR-66fx myself, it’s very simple once you know the type of the grease and have an access to the vtf side spring (I have).



Reading this thread: some people may think it’s necessary to pay $800-1000 for some new bearings and some new wires for FR tonearms, but it’s NOT. No matter what you think. Especially newer models like FX, PRO, MKII. Refurbishing is absolutely nonsense for Ikeda tonearms (unless it’s broken).



For people who just bought them my advice is to use them as is, until there is an audible (or mechanical) problem.



For people like you FR tonearm is like a religion, it’s fine. Probably your 64s or 66s were used for 20-30 years by yourself. But there are almost unused or nos FX or Ikeda on the market, harder to find unused 64s are there too.


Any tonearm can be maintained, refurbished, rewired, but in most cases it’s just not necessary, especially when the cost just for the service is close to 50% of the tonearm market value today! This is just a bit of common sense (just my opinion). I like FR 64s and fx tonearms, Ikeda tonearm too. I must admit that Lustre GST-801 is another great tonearm from the same era, when I bought a NOS sample, my rewired sample went to a friend, but I enjoy NOS on the higher level now. 


There are always people who think they know better what to do, I posted earlier as an example that Dynamic VTF on FR 64s considered as evil by many “experts”, one of them is Thimas Schick, but you said you don’t care. 



When Isamu Ikeda explained why IT-347 is different from 64s you said you don’t care about designer’s opinion about his product. 

Now when I say $800-1000 for rewiring/refurshing is “nonsense” you are not happy about such comment. 

I think Richard Mak makes a very compelling argument for refurbishing the FR-64S or FR-66S aged arms.  He also offers the mod to the arms that will allow for one tonearm cable from cartridge pins to RCA plugs. The later is more controversial as is alters the arm and its resale value.  Also, there are many who feel eliminating connections in the tonearm cable pathway are critical and many who prefer the flexibility of the SME style connection headshell. I don't think there is a right or wrong, just preference.  I have no intentions of selling my FR-64S and I don't mind the loss of flexibility if I can improve audio enjoyment. This pushes me to be open to a mod and refurb. Finally, although many things in audio are cheaper when you do them yourself, to some, even $800 - $1000 is well worth the price if it is done well and saves you time and the potential of screwing things up.  

It all depends on the condition of the arm. I bought my 64fx with silver leads inside in mint condition and I wouldn’t dream of sending it to anyone for refurbishing as there’s nothing to refurbish. My 64s with copper leads inside had a longer, more intense prior life. Refurbishing as well as replacing the inside leads with silver has clearly improved its performance, so this was worth the investment.

I do have reason to believe that the importance of an uninterrupted tonearm cable is sonically overrated. Besides you will lose flexibility and if nothing else the resale value of your 64/66 will presumably drop like a brick. To each his own, but I’d never go there.