Best Cartridge for VPI Aries orig + JMW 10.5 ?

Thanks everyone for the input. Its looking like a medium output Helikon (to save money over the SL) with the Aries/jmw10.5/ear834p combo is now the leading contender based on what I've heard here.

The Helikon also works well into a ARC PH3 SE (phono) for me.....hope that helps also!

According to his 6/16 post, TWL never used a JMW arm with a Denon cartridge. Nor presumably with any low compliance cartridge. Nor at all. That being the case, why would anyone pay any attention to what he has to say about this combination? His argument is pseudoscience gone astray.

Art Dudly, who is acknowledged as an analog expert, has actually tried the combination and says the Denon 103/JMW 10 (It WAS the 103, not the 103D) combination offers great performance. I concur based on experience. It is also an extremely cost effective duo.

Melm, when you learn something about tonearm design, let me know. Then we might be able to have a productive discussion.

FYI, I HAVE used a DL103 on many different tonearms, but only an idiot would even try one on a JMW. If you think that this is not a problem, maybe you should try talking to Harry about it. Do you think Harry would introduce a set of optional outriggers to handle cartridges of low compliance, if they weren't needed? He says that the outriggers are needed for even cartridges of 9cu like the Shelter and Koetsu. He doesn't even try to mention the 103 at 5cu.

My only comment to your(and Art's) use of a 103 on a JMW is, that you don't know what a 103 sounds like when it is in a proper arm for it, or you would not have made statements as you did. Just because it makes sound doesn't mean it is good in the arm. It is people like you, who will throw any cartridge into any arm, and hope it sounds right, that makes getting into analog needlessly difficult and problematic for beginners. I think the JMW is a fine arm with the right cartridges. Unfortunately for you and Art, the 103 is NOT the right cartridge.

The JMW is neither the correct mass, nor stable enough for a 103, and that is a plain fact.

I see this very commonly, especially with JMW users. They think that just because they bought an expensive nice arm, that it can be used "willy-nilly" with any cartridge, without any concern for matching. Well, I'm sorry, but that is not the way it works.

Like I said, try spending about 30 years learning about this subject, and maybe we can talk then.

So Art Dudley put a Denon 103 on a JMW 10 and it sounded great. But Art Dudley doesn't know what a 103 sounds like? And Art is an "idiot" for even trying? But Twl knows the truth-doesn't he?

[In case anyone doesn't know who Art is, he wrote for the Absolute Sound and then ran and edited the very informative "Listner" magazine and is now a monthly columnist for Stereophile. Most of us consider him extremely knowledgeable, especially regarding analog reproduction.]

And I used a Denon 103 for an extended period on a first class arm with traditional bearings, and I am sure it sounded better on the JMW that I have now. But I don't know what a 103 sounds like? And I am an "idiot" for even trying? But Twl knows the truth-doesn't he?.

But you, the great Twl, have never used a Denon 103 on a JMW arm. But you DO know what that combination sounds like. What impeccable logic. Yuccch!

And you, the great Twl, think Art or I would throw any cartridge on any arm simply because we have found the 103 and the original JMW arms to sound very good, a proposition definitely shared by VPI by the way.

The "outriggers" for your information are part of the 1X.5 upgrade, and will probably make any appropriate cartridge sound better, as upgrades are designed to do. The original JMW arms have a VERY heavy upper bearing circular weight well below the bearing and already provide much of what the relatively small 1X.5 "outriggers" provide.

Some people can spend 30 years trying to learn something and then prove by what they say or write that they haven't succeeded in learning anything. What a waste of 30 years.

Twl sounds like a hi fi salesman; he's got all the buzz words. He just doesn't put them together correctly.

There is only one final test, friend; that is to listen!