Cartridge / Tonearm opinions requested...

Lasercd,

May I ask what made you conclude that the W-B arm was going to be the arm of choice?

Just a minor correction - Wilson-Benesch is a UK company & not a Japanese one (www.wilson-benesch.co.uk). From reading their philosphy of analog design, it is clear that they are proponents of low-mass design. This is a key point! Teres Audio is a big proponent of mass-loaded design. Everything they make is very heavy! They have very good design principles as does W-B & I'm not critizing any manuf. here - merely pointing out the diff. The ACT 2 arm is designed to go into a low-mass, rigid system. This leads me to believe that the synergies between ACT 'table & ACT 2 arm will be symbiotic & "made for each other" by design. It is not clear that the ACT 2 arm will perform the same way in a mass-loaded Teres design. It might & then it might not. The 2 philosphies are very different. My gut feeling is that the ACT 2 arm is a wrong choice for the Teres 'table. It might give you very good perf. but nowhere near the optimum that the 265 is capable of. Of course, this is my opinion!

A suggestion would be to chose a tonearm from Chris Brady's "tier 1" list. All tonearms there are proven to perform at the highest level with a Teres. I'm sure that you know that SYNERGY is a key part of obtaining top-notch performance. Getting a carbon fibre tonearm for the sake of looks seems to be the wrong method of chosing a tonearm. Again, IMHO!

Not critizing you in any way. Of course, you make the final decision as it is your system & you have to live w/ it. I feel that you might be compromising the TA-265 right from the get-go.

FWIW. I hope you take this in the right spirit. Thanks!

Bombaywalla:

I definitely take your comments in the right spirit and I appreciate your input (same goes for Twl - your insight regarding analog always seems to be spot on).

What I was referring to was the W-B cartridge which is of Japanese origin - not the arm which I know is of British origin. I don't know who in Japan makes the W-B Analog cartridge (the Carbon is sourced from Benz).

Regarding my choice of arms...I really could not decide between the Moerch or the W-B. I was kidding about the carbon fiber but I actually do prefer the look of the W-B over the Moerch for what that's worth. Of course sonics come first.

As far as the synergy with the Teres and W-B...I spoke with W-B's North American distributor. He was not familiar with the Teres table but considered the Act 2 to be more of a "universal" design than the .5 arm which is specifically designed to work in the Circle table. He didn't suggest their would be any compatibility issues with any particular tt design approach. I've had numerous conversations with Chris Brady regarding arm selection. He didn't seem to feel as though there was as much of a difference among the arm choices as there was from jumping up to the 265 from a 255. I mentioned the Wilson Act 2 arm and he didn't voice any opinion that it would be a bad choice. Perhaps he isn't intimate with it.

I haven't ordered the arm yet so I may wake up tomorrow and decide on the Moerch but this is starting to get to me. I'll have to come up with a definitive answer soon.

Looks like I need to do more detective work and ask more questions...

Thanks!

If you are open to other choices for tonearms, I would strongly suggest the Origin Live tonearms. I use the OL Silver on my Teres, and it is a stunning performer. Personally, I feel pretty strongly about using a gimbal-bearing type tonearm with low compliance cartridges, which you seem to prefer, judging from your list. At the prices you are looking at for WB tonearms, you could get the top line Origin Live Illustrious. Make no mistake, these OL arms are at the top of the heap. They may not get the press that the other top arms get, but it is likely that they will outperform most of the more well known top arms. My OL Silver works beautifully with the Teres, and I have no desire to change to SME, Graham, or anything else. It's a perfect match for a Shelter(which I am using now), or Koetsu, or any other low to mid compliance cartridge. Don't let the lower price scare you away. These are some of the best arms you can buy.

Lasercd,

Glad to note that you have taken the comments in the right spirit.

Re. the W-B arm, I feel that just because Chris Brady didn't say anything negative doesn't mean that it will be a suitable match! From his website, it is quite clear that he has virtually zero experience with it & he is not going to tell a customer not to use it on his 265 'table! Re. the W-B rep. in the USA - you can expect him to use those exact words. That's his job! I would take his words with a grain of salt esp. since there is no other user out there to confirm this.

Your other choice of Moerch DP-6 seems to be much better esp. since it has a proven track record on the Teres. This to me is more important than looks or W-B's carbon fibre technology (which no doubt is very appealing. The engineer in me digs that kind of stuff!).

As an aside (w/o meaning to be an Origin Live salesman!): TWL's recommendation of the Origin Live arms is also 2nd by me. I too have the Silver 250 on my Bluenote 'table with just excellent results. The TA-265, I think, warrants a better arm such as the Illustrious or the Encounter.

IMHO, chose an arm from the "tier 1" list or one of the OL arms & relieve yourself of this mental anguish.

As Twl, and a few others on here know, I recently participated in an audition of several different tables using an OL Illustrious and Shelter 901 (and 501) combo. On a Teres table (and a Nottingham Hyperspace), the OL/Shelter combo was among the best I've ever heard at ANY price. Given that Twl finds the Teres/OL sympatico, I would not hesitate for one second to drop that bad-boy combo into the fray. And then, hold on.

I would have only one nit pick. Phono Stage...