Graham, Naim Aro, or Linn arms?

I've had a Naim Aro on my LP-12 (mated to an Ortofon Jubilee cartridge) since 2001. Sublime combo.

One small caveat on the Aro: unless Naim has changed things since 2001, it does *not* come with a cueing device, so unless you add your own, you will have to manually lower and raise the arm. I was able to buy a (no longer made) Naim Aromatic cuing device when I bought my arm. It's not without its foibles, but it beats manual engagement of the arm.

I purchased a Naim Aro tonearm for my LP12 and have never been happier. It replaced a Linn Ekos. You need to have a steady hand cuing it since its unipivot design requires it. However, the sound is awesome. Since then, I've also replaced the Lingo power supply with a Naim Armeggedon, which also demonstrated dramatic improvements to the sound. Good luck!

Larryi: I see you have a Lyra Titan Cartridge. What do you think is the advantage over the Dorian? Have you heard the Helicon? I am not sure if it is worth the money for me. What are your impressions?

I don't know about the Dorian, but, my Titan replaced a Helikon. The Titan delivers more detail and more "air" on top (higher pitched instruments seem more open) and the sense of a real acoustic space and notes decaying naturally is superior with the Titan. But, the slightly better performance comes at a much higher price.

The Titan is not very load sensitive compared to other cartridges, but it MAY be touchy about VTA. It may just be the case that it is so detailed on top that small changes in VTA become evident, but it seems more sensitive than other cartridges I have tried.

Another thing that MAY make the Titan more demanding is that its all Titanium body is designed to transmit the vibrations set up in the body of the cartridge away from the cartridge into the arm (as oppose to dampening the energy in the cartridge itself). This puts a pretty high demand on the arm beign able to also transmit the energy away and then dampen the vibation (instead of reflecting the energy back to the cartridge). In short, a very rigid arm and rigid bearings are a must. A unipivot arm is often actually quite rigid (all the mass concentrated on a tiny bearing point) so many unipivots would qualify.

I would bet that the Dorian delivers pretty good performance for the money. I use to have a Lydian and that was a very good cartridge.

I've used a Naim Aro on my LP-12 for many years now and absolutely love it. I would say that it simply plays music. It does not sound hi-fi in your face, but very even balanced through out the entire range. It does not over emphasize anything. It portrays realistic micro and macro dynamics, wonderful harmonic structure, and is in my humble opinion makes a wonderful combination that I think would be hard to beat. Yes, it is manual cueing but I have never had a problem placing the stylus down on the record or taking it off. However, if you try to cue it to one of the last tracks of the record, it does take practice. This is simply something that I don't do anyhow. If you have an opportunity to hear one, I think you would love it. If ever in Wisconsin, you are welcome to come hear mine.

Regards,