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What cartridge to use....Rega RB25 Structural Mod

I have a Rega RB250 with the JA Michell structural mod and Incognito rewire mounted on an Acoustic Signature Final Tool. I am currently using a Koetsu Red with very good results. I am looking for something better. Aren't we all?? As you may or may not know, the Michell mod allows use of just about any cartridge made. There are 2 different counterweights. One for cartridges with a weight of 3 to 6 grams and another for cartridges with weights from 6-13 grams. The RB250 has an effective mass of 11 grams. So, with this in mind, what do you think. I am trying to stay within the $1,000.00 range, new or used. I have some cartridges in mind. The Dynavector DRT XV-1, XX-1, XX-2, ZYX Fuji R100 FS, Benz Micro LO.4, Lyra Helikon and the Ortofon Jubilee are some of the choices thus far. I have not listened to any of the above cartridges. I am going on reviews from this site and some of the professional reviews I have read. Please let me know if you've had any experience with similar setups or if you have any recommendations/suggestions regarding other cartridges I haven't mentioned. Also, I need to purchase a cartridge alignment tool. Any suggestions on tools under $50.00 would be great!!

Thank You
Jeff
128x128jfrizzell49
stefanl
296 posts
 
I am not the owner of all those arms,they probably belonged to a whole lot of people.I was actually quoting from Garth's experience with Rega arms who makes the Incognito Rewire Modification,which no doubt you are familiar with.He also states "I doubt a Rega arm would barely move with an ABEC 7P bearing which has a radial play of .0001 to .00015. I rebuilt a RB250 with ABEC 5P bearings and it was tight, very tight....I would say that the quality of tonearm assembly is of even more key importance than the type or tolerance of the bearings used."That is from someone with a lot of experience adjusting and tweaking Rega Arms and their bearings.I might suggest that you heard the Rega arm in less than ideal conditions and I would say that they are much better if tweaked from the "stock" form they are set-up on a Rega table.You would hear "smearing" in spades I am sure.I have seen the official Rega Fixture for the bearing nut and it is totally wrong.Roy Gandy probably has no right to sell his tables set-up in this way.That being said something like the Origin Live silver shows how good this arm can be,very close to a Triplanar 7 as Doug Deacon has stated on this forum.
pauly
1,012 posts
 
Stefan

I know who Garth is. Garth sells Rega/OEM arms. He has a lot of experience but nobody lies more than a salesman. I believe that in the industry, lying to the public is known as marketing, no?

My setup is very good and more than adequate to come to an objective conclusion as to which arm is better. (I can send a photos and description off line if you want – email me) Also, I have no reason to like or dislike Rega arms. I am only interested in having good sound – I do not have to sell anything to anybody.

My RB's (I had 3) were all modified with Incognito(2) and Discovery. I loved them till I mounted my Morch – the difference was nothing other than dramatic. Even some arms that are less expensive than a modified RB (Scheu Classic/Bel Canto Unipivot and Graham Robin) are significantly better. Yes, I tried them both and now own a Scheu also. At one time I had two Morch's mounted on my table.

A good friend who is a Rega fan lent me his RB600 to compare against my Morch. It was a joke – the RB was blown out of the water. He now is running a Morch UP4 also.

I think Jeff would be well advised to consider upgrading to an arm like a Morch UP or Hadcock and keeping his Koetsu Red.

Regards
Paul
sit
315 posts
 
Whoh! Are you folks getting a little out of control? An Origin Live modified RB300 with Cardas wiring is hard to beat for the price. It beats performance on a lot of arms costing up to 3 times more if one has the correct set up with matching cart. I beg to differ with some of the negative comments above from the experience I have had.

I now use an Origin Live Incognito, Shelter 90x cart, SOTA vacuum table. But the Modified RB300 with 901 cart performed quite good for me on my system. It had new Cardas internal wiring with 5 pin DIN termination. I have read where the modified RB250 actually outperforms the modified RB300 (Thorsten Loesch/TNT-Audio, 1999 @ www.tnt-audio.com ).

I do believe the Benz would be too warm for the arm Jeff now owns.
stefanl
296 posts
 
Yes,Poaul Ladegaard in his paper on mechanical resonances in turntables established that lightweight arms are really the best performers overall.I think he used a Danish Moerch arm as one of the arms in the experiment actually.This was cognizant also on the best arm /cartridge match in terms of cartridge resonance and system matching.If you can find a good used UP-4 I would probably try it myself.I don't think Garth is misleading though and I am aware there are better arms out there.Take Mark Baker's development of the basic Rega into the Encounter arm for example.You can see what could be done to it.
twl
3,251 posts
 
I really think that all this discussion about arms needs to be related to the cartridge/cartridges that are to be used with these arms.

Not every tonearm is correct for every cartridge.
To discuss arms without cartridges in mind is quite "out of context" in my opinion.

Regarding the cartridge originally mentioned in the thread topic, I wouln't recommend the use of something like a Koetsu, DL103R, or Shelter in most unipivot arms(although there are a few exceptions), especially any light weight unipivot arms.

All unipivot arms are pushed to their limits of stability with low compliance cartridges, and even the actions of the tonearm designers themselves, such as Graham, and Weisfield, and others, have incorporated "outriggers" or other types of stabilizers to help their unipivot arms deal with the lower compliance cartridges.

Matching is critical, and proper matching goes beyond simple mass/resonance calcs.
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