2. analog
  3. 1191977557

Micro Seiki MA707 vs CF-1

I see photos of these two tonearms, and they appear to be identical. In both cases the arm tube can be black in color, which I assume means that it is made of carbon fiber, and has markings at regular intervals from pivot to stylus. However, sometimes the armtube has a sliding weight on it, sometimes not. I understand from my reading on the web that the graduations on the arm tube along with the sliding weight are used to adjust tonearm effective mass. So, two questions, really: What are differences between the two arms? If I see an arm tube that is black and has the graduated markings on it but no sliding weight, is it likely that the arm is incomplete? And BTW, does the MA707 or the CF-1 offer any kind of repeatable VTA adjustment, on the fly or otherwise? Thanks.
lewm
clio09
3,360 posts
 
I'll have to look into the 202 myself. You may want to ping Raul on the forum. He has a MS 282 I believe which is supposed to be one fantastic arm. He knows quite a bit about the vintage tonearms.

I have the wrench for the MA-505 somewhere. I don't recall using it to mount the tonearm though. I think I was able to tighten it fine by hand.
goodmusic
9 posts
 

The answer of @clio09 is wrong:
The Micro Seiki CF-1 tonearm is identical with the Micro Seiki MA-701:
https://www.hifi-wiki.de/index.php/Micro_Seiki_MA-701

None have a sliding weight on the front armtube (carbon fiber) nor do they have markings!

So both, the CF-1 and MA-701 are complete without any front sliding weight because they never had one.

It is the MA-707 which has the sliding weight:
https://www.hifi-wiki.de/index.php/Micro_Seiki_MA-707

All three tonearms have the same detacheable headshell and there is a ceramic headshell by Micro which is supposed to be very good.

There was a late version of the MA-701 which was cheaper:
https://www.vinylengine.com/library/micro-seiki/ma-701.shtml

and here we have the confusion, vinylengine has data on the MA707 tonearm here:
https://www.vinylengine.com/library/micro-seiki/ma-707.shtml
but what they show is the earlier MA-701/CF-1

 

lewm OP
13,256 posts
 

17 years later. I’m still here, but my MA505 is long gone. Never even used it but loved the quality machining.

More to discover