High Performance Low Mass Tone Arm Suggestions Needed

“A substantial counterweight “ might wreck your chances for low effective mass unless you mount it close as possible to the pivot. I’ve had good luck with my Dynavector DV505 and my Triplanar and the MC2000. But if you’re religious about matching compliance to effective mass, J Gordon Holt once pointed out you’d need a 5g tonearm with the MC2000. In practice you’ll probably have no problem with any of the above.

JGH liked the cartridge on the Well Tempered arm, which searches showed it as 10 grams. The SME V he used it on and did not like it was 9.5 grams, so it would appear that more than mass was in play and that other characteristics formed his decision. I have it on a Dynavector DV505 with a Supex SL3 head shell and it does indeed work on that arm. However, that tonearm will not fit on a SOTA so, if I want to use one on that table I need an alternative. Also, I have yet to find a measurement for mass of the vestigial arm wand portion of the DV505, so I have no idea what the true mass of the arm I am using it on is. 

I happen to have a second MC2000 that was retyped with a tapered aluminum cantilever, so this one is not stock, but I do have a OEM one to compare it to against. The retyped one does not track as well in the Dynavector as the OEM one does, and the cantilever is not as robust as the OEM one, so it points to the DV505 being just inside the window of usability. Ideally I would like to be able to use the second MC2000 as it sits, and perhaps in the future I will consider it for a boron cantilever as Raul did with one, or see if Ortofon will rebuilt with an equivalent cantilever they use on the Cadenza Bronze. But I got a couple of thousand of hours here I would like to get to use.

I have owned an Acos GST801 and while a nice arm, it is still massy, more of a mid mass arm. Had a Technics EPA250 for awhile, and I would have to find one of those arms with all the auxiliary counterweights, and even then I am not sure it can balance out an 11 gram cartridge. 

Does anyone think a Black Widow is up to the task? I believe Pioneer and Stax made carbon fiber arms that might work. 

Other tested arm/cartridge combination was and is the MAX-237 with the J removable headshell wand. Exceptional.

R.

Moerch DP6 is the obvious arm if you want low effective mass - the 9" green dot arm tube is 4.5g effective mass and the red dot arm tube is 7.5g effective mass.

Alternative Dynavectors that work on your SOTA would include DV501, 507, and 507 mkII. Or any tonearm with effective mass less than 12 or so g, based on my experience with the Triplanar. Going from the theoretical optimum of 5g to 10g would only decrease resonant frequency by 20% or so. That’s one reason it works. Another is that one doesn’t know the actual compliance of a representative sample of any particular cartridge, let alone one that may now be 30 years old.