Micro Max 282 vs. Exclusive EA-10

T-Bone,
it seems to me the EA-10 tonearm is such rare as the wonderful Exclusive P10 TT is you are owning. Maybe because everything of the fantastic built technology this TT as well as the tonearm provides is covered by the plinth, so everyone was thinking this is just a standard Japanese direct drive table of the late 70ties, 80ties.

When Micro showed up with its big machines and the Max 237 (It was my first tonearm on the 8000, I sold it because the wiring was old copper 10 years ago and I went for newer designs- what a misleading error) this mark was buried in oblivion.

And to be honest - Pioneer was not an exclusive mark (of course it´s high end branch was - what a name game)to most audiophiles and is not in the high end analogue field anymore to my knowledge.

The EA-10 I am using on my Micro is rewired with Ikeda silver wire. It was not easy to find a bases for the Micro with such a big hole to carry the EA-10 massive block. The bases was built in Osaka in may this year.

Now this is my impresion with the Miyabi standard: Despite the silver is new and needs some time to be run in (I hear a little bright but rich sound) the overall picture is very stable, precise and with a deep soundstage. The EA-10 is one of my best old-design arms.

Thuchan, the EA-10 is anything but bright.

Sounds like the Silver wire you have transplanted has tilted the sound. Did the silver settle down?

Downunder, yes the silver improved substantially. I did it also with my Max 282. It is absolutely worth to do it. You then will have one of the top arms.
Fun Only - Thuchan

Dear Downunder, having re-wired both the EA-10 and the MAX-237/282 at least 3 times each (mostly with IKEDA silver PTFE insulated litzwire, I can testify that the stock inner wire of both tonearms is rather a sonic downgrade.
Both do feature pretty decent and un-symmetrical coaxial pvc-insulated copper wire inside which does not allow to show off their sonic virtues. The shield of that coaxial wire is used as "-" and is different gauge AND different material mix (steel/copper). It is not so much the wire which does need some time to settle, it is rather the solder joints.
Given the very tiny signal voltage (not to mention the micro current) of a LOMC, I regard silver wire inner wiring in a tonearm a conditio sine qua non if you really want all details buried in the groove brought to the preamp's RIAA.
Cheers,
D.

Daniel,
How difficult is it to rewire the EA-10/EA-3 armwands? The EA-3 straight armwands have a small screw near the connector which looks like it could be used to undo the connector, but given the size, it looks like a very small-tipped soldering iron would be required. I assume the wiring inside the main body of the arm (i.e. the part other than the armwand) is left as-is?