How to choose an upgraded tonearm.

@yeti42 , unfortunately, the heavy plate took the tonearm mass up too high for the cartridges I currently have. Schroder does have optional weights but since I have a lath and brass rod is easy to order I made several weights of various sizes. The only clue that they are not from Schroder is that the color of the brass I used is a shade darker. Going to the lighter weight lower's the arms mass and limits inertia improving the arm's tracking. I put a really warped record on which defeated the vacuum clamping and the Schroder danced beautifully, many arms would have gone airborne. 

My own opinion on unipivot arms is a lot more dismal than yeti42's. Unless you are talking about either the Basis or Graham arms I strongly advise against Unipivot arms. Both of these arms are overpriced and the Basis is really a bipivot arm. The Graham is a magnetically stabilized unipivot. IMHO the arms I mentioned perform just as well or better and are much more realistically priced.

The Lyra Lambda cartridges are designed so that their coils are in perfect alignment at the recommended tracking force and anti skating. Which intuitively would seem to be of obvious benefit but, a well designed magnetic system will provide a very uniform field strength across the gap between the poles. The only cartridge alignment would be critical would be the VDH cartridges that do away with the front pole piece. While there might be a benefit with the shorter cantilever this allows I personally do not care for the design but I have not listened to one so I should keep my mouth shut, a trait I am obviously not proficient at.  

@skyscraper , for what it is worth, Jonathan Carr has made comments in his marketing that would indicate that he does not like his cartridges in unipivot arms. You have to look at the tonearm and cartridge as one unit. They have to work together to do the job correctly. Any of these arms will seriously outperform what you are using now and will work great with Lyra cartridges. Will you hear the difference? There is no way I can know that. It depends on your sensitivity  and your situation, system, setup, room, etc. I can tell you with my system and my ears there is no contest. 

@mulveling , you can bolt any tonearm to any table assuming there is enough real estate. It might take some machining and cleverness but it can be done. My favorite way is to re-machine the tonearm area to accept a removable tonearm board. If you pick the right arm you may actually improve resale value. 

I’ve run my SPU Royal N at ~3g and on my worst wavy warped records it’s failed to leave the groove or even produce audible mis tracking. As I mentioned above My arm in its heaviest form has an effective mass of 18g, the cartridge and adaptor weigh 15.7g and the quite long brass screws a bit over 2g so there is around 36g countering the 8μm/Nm @10Hz compliance. If the cartridge is becoming airborne then there’s a mismatch. My Decca Maroon in the Aro would be an example of the latter and that did leave the groove without a bit more mass at the headshell.

As the VPI arm is in hand put it to the test before contemplating replacing it, assuming you do your own setting  up and you’ll gain experience. It at least gives you a baseline.

"what are you referring to with "Lyra’s pre 3d/gimbal"? 

skyscraper,

I am referring to 8 or so years ago, BEFORE VPI developed the 3D and gimbal designs. VPI users mounting upper end Lyra's on their tables with standard arms.

You may have better luck with contact via Email info@vpiindustries.com

Maybe there is an arm board for aftermarket arms VPI offers? Another thing you can ask VPI about is if they have a gimbal blem/2nd's for discount.

I have had contact with Matt and he offered me a 3D.  I passed. Wasn't a big enough discount for me to jump. I probably could have negotiated a better deal for it, but wasn't that inspired at the moment. 

Yeti42. I’ll make sure the person doing the set up reconnects the anti-skating. Thank you for that advice. After trying to absorb all the knowledge you’ve imparted about different tonearms, it’s obvious you and Mijostyn both need to move here to Virginia to take care of this. Amazing and impressive. how much you know about various cartridges and the like..

I did do the set uo on my Ortofon 2M Black, but would likely be in over my head setting up the Lyra Kleos, even though valuable experience would be gained as you said. I’ll figure out how to install the VPI dual pivot mod, but that’s about the limit.in this arena.

Mijostyn, ,impressive you know how to do machining and can apply that skill to audio applications. I’ve been thinking on taking a course on machining and acquiring enough skill to facilitate restoring vintage woodworking machines, another hobby.. I’d love to get a Bridgeport, a nice lathe and some other equipment, But I’m getting off topic.

I’m going to look up all the arms you mentioned on the used market too, even though I don’t prefer to go there. I did see one Schroder CB used for $2000 which wasn’t too bad. I’ll call Matt at VPI and see if any of those you suggested can be retrofitted on the VPI base.

Tablejockey, thanks for the clarification.

Mike

Dear @skyscraper : Up grade the VPI tonearm to " dual pivot " and latter on think not to change the tonearm but the VPI TT/tonearm that in reality is an average/mediocre item.

The posts here said talk of tonearms at around 5K and all those are good options but for a different TT.

 

You could think in this extremely well regarded and " inexpensive " TT/tonearm: the Rega RP10:

 

https://www.the-ear.net/review-hardware/rega-rp10-turntable-tonearm

https://www.tonepublications.com/review/rega-rp10-turntable/

 

Mr. M.Fremer review on the 80K+ turntable manufactured by SAT model XD1 he used the SAT 50K+ tonearm and mounted the Lyra Etna Lambda and in that SAT overall review M.Fremer posted:

""

The XD1 shares some sonic characteristics with Rega’s revolutionary RP10 turntable: ultrafast, clean transients throughout the audible frequency range; tight, fast bass; revealing midrange transparency; and overall sonic stability and focus. All these characteristics result, apparently, from careful attention paid to structural rigidity and the removal or prevention of unwanted vibrational energy.

As good as the P10 is, it’s not an SAT XD1. ""

 

and the RP10 set you back the ridiculous 5.5K dollars including the tonearm:

 

 

 

 

 

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,

R.