AR Turntables are collectible? There are many thousands of them out there (I saw them listed for $50-$100 in local papers for years). I modified my AR XA by cutting out the well for the arm (it’s a piece of junk) and replacing it with a Formula 4 Unipivot. The XB is the same table but with a plastic imitation-wood covering in place of the XA’s real-wood veneer. The XB also has a metal headshell in place of the XA’s plastic.
There was a great mod-kit for the XA and XB (with a substitute floating subchassis), but if I wanted an AR I would look for an ES-1, the version of the table when it was re-introduced in the mid-80’s (I had one of those too). It’s basically the same as the XA, but with a separate arm board (the table was offered without or with an arm---a nice Jelco-sourced one. I mounted a Rega RB300 instead.).
I was okay with the ES-1 until I heard a VPI HW-19 at Brooks Berdan’s shop. Bye bye AR, hello VPI ;-) .
