Good question, Viridian. The stock effective mass of the Technics arm is 12g, the same as an RB300/301. To hit that 12g, Technics uses a 7.5g headshell. Try finding one that light on the aftermarket. I have a 12g Sumiko headshell and a 14g LPGear ZuPreme. These raise the effective mass to 16.5 and 18.5g respectively, or 17 and 19 when you count the cartridge mounting hardware. The 12g mass arm works well with compliances of 20-30 and the 12-14g headshells extend the range to carts with compliance ranges of 10-15. I also have the KAB fluid damper, which *significantly* lowers the amplitude of the cart/tonearm resonance, whatever that pitch may be.
So far I've been able to mount anything from a 30-compliance Shure M97xE to my current 10-compliance AT150MLX and have them hit a resonant peak of 10-11 Hz.
So far I've been able to mount anything from a 30-compliance Shure M97xE to my current 10-compliance AT150MLX and have them hit a resonant peak of 10-11 Hz.