How to choose an upgraded tonearm.

@skyscraper : Looks as you really did not care enough when you read it the Rega links because the price is 5.7 K not 7K that’s the price including Rega cartridge.

VPI TT/tonearm you own is really an entry level and normally not always: entry level audio item is in the lower part of the manufacturer item models and this means inside mediocrity/average level, its price tells you about. That Classic VPI TT can work with the Fatboy or any top tonearm you like but that it can work does not means is a good " place to mount the FB along the Kleos.

I don’t care what you could buy but you already bougth the Kleos and that specific cartridge model along top Lyra models were mounted in that " inexpensive " Rega plattform/tonearm with excellent results for experienced gentlemans that know about quality level performance . As M.Fremer they mounted too other top cartridges coming from Dynavector and Ortofon with the same success.

I made it to you an stupid advise when posted of that " second pivot " that in reality is not a true pivot and that does not solve the VPI tonearm problem you have for that Kleos. Next is a Lyra " warning " in his site for its cartridges:

" tonearms with rigid bearing(s), "

but when we go to better tonearms is critical the plattform/TT where we want to mount it for it works at its best and you have not that kind of plattform/TT. I think you need a new TT/tonearm for that Kleos if you want really enjoy the best that that cartridge can shows you.

Yes, I’m still think that not only my second pivot advise was stupid one but the stand alone arm pod for you it is too.

R.

@lewm , Yes, he is increasing the VTA when he does that but that is not what is causing the wow. Thanx for watching the video. I think you agree that it is an excellent primer.

@skyscraper , Having looked at pictures of your table, you have a tonearm board screwed to the upper surface of the plinth. Using the same screw holes you can mount any 9 or 10" arm on any size tonearm board as long as the arms are surface mount. But in thinking about it @rauliruegas advice is probably the best. You might think about selling what you have as a unit and getting a new table/arm combination like a Rega RP 10 or a Sota Sapphire with a Rega RB 3000 arm. 

@skyscraper Good Luck with your investigations into the options to experience new equipment within your system.

From your posts I sense you are a individual who has a background of thoroughly enjoying your encounters with music through the methods that you have chosen to participate in it. Maybe a Live Music Experience or a bit of R&R in front of the Home System.

Myself today, I share in the above history and even more crazily I treasure the moments sitting with my wife listening to her Alexia and her calling music up from our past, this as an activity that can be at certain times the bulk of my music encounters along with the Vehicles Radio.

Enjoying music and enjoying Hi Fidelity can easily become parallel universes.

There is another side to building a HiFi System that can create a side line interest, the interest is one that develops in not too many, and the development can quite easily manifest in some as an obsessional behaviour where the individual can become very insular and lose sight of the enjoying the music, it is all analysis, analysis, analysis.

My own history has been to go over the cliff with the obsession overloading the mind, but I have for many years walked free from it.

Wearing the weight of obsession, takes myself too far from the term for an Audiophile that I will happily label myself with, ’being an individual that has a healthy want to enjoy music’.

While reading through your thread, I sense you have not developed an obsession with equipment, and the interest arose to build up a little more understanding about working with an Interface within your Vinyl Replay Set Up, which was met with descriptions that were new and proving to be a further stimulation to your present interest.

I think it is safe to suggest we are very similar in our approaches to our own systems, even though the experiences encountered are in a different quantity between us.

A large proportion of my time in the recent past has been working with the interfaces that are present within the system.

Mounting Methods, for the Overall Systems Devices and Mounting Methods for singular devices such as a Chassis to a Plinth Material and a Tonearm to a Plinth Material or Tonearm Base Material, add to that Head Shell Materials and Platter Mat Materials.

There is a lot of Pro’s and Con’s to be discovered when trying out materials and devices within a system, but as described previously, there are differences that can be detected and some are preferred to to be kept, but I do not believe any one makes the music less enjoyable.

Putting this into context, I have an LP I have owned for nearly 40 Years, the first time I listened to this Album was using a TT that was worth very little money, and was all things a TT should not really be, but I loved every minute of the replays and have kept the LP close.

When listening to the LP throughout the years and today on a equipment totally correct for the replay of a LP, the enjoyment factor of listening to the LP has never  increased, the change is, the satisfaction with the equipment being used, this has increased substantially.  

The other side to interfaces is the Electrical side of the equation, Power, Phono RCA and Speaker Cable Types. Cable Plugs and Tube Rolling.

These are all able to participated in with a minimal user input, and can be achieved through a frugal or substantial outlay or even loaned for the items to be tried, and through all the above experiences being encountered the need has not arose to change owned Electronic equipment used in the system for many years.

I do have a social outlet as well, and I do get great pleasure out of introducing others to some of the items I have acquired that I feel has been able to make a impression, or not.

It is quite interesting to discover a ’or not’ for one system can be a most attractive when used in a new system and new environment.

I am sure your ongoing investigation will be fruitful and will bring you into the company of others that understand your intentions, and share with you encouragement.

To add further curiosity to your interest, I have PM’d you a link to a Web Site that might prove to be an enjoyable read.

Dear @mijostyn  : Yes the SOTA is very good plattform for tonearms. The Rega RP-10 advantage is not only that  for its quality level performance could be really a " bargain " item but that already was tested with Lyra cartridges with success.

Anyway, looks as the op wants to stays sticky to the Classic, to each his own. Nothing wrong with that.

R.

Than you Pindac for your interest and the link you have PMed. Some folks here, like you , have progressed father into this field than I’m ever likely to. Be that as it may, it’s a complicated hobby to enjoy, but not yet an avocation.. I’ll never reach the skill or knowledge level of some of the respondents here, but there’s no reason to have to. It is a joy though to be able to appreciate the knowledge you all so graciously share. Like equipment reviews their shared knowledge gets over my head at times, but no matter, I sort it out best I can to make better informed decisions.

Mike, check out my current thread on Fatboys, Thanks. No new turntables for me though, unless they are presents or I win the lottery. You and your compatriots have already done more than enough on the new purchase front. convincing me to purchase a Lyra Kleos, and now maybe a new tonearm. You’ll not squeeze a new turntable out of me. Take it easy,

Mike