Used Morch DP-6 or modified Origin Live Silver?

Well, I just received the package from OL. Very interesting. There is an Aurora turntable, and Encounter Tonearm, and another very interesting little item. It is a new version of the Silver, called the Silver II. And guess what? It has a factory-made version of the HiFi mod on it. You heard right. A factory version of the HiFi mod on the new Silver II tonearm.

They have replaced the end-cap nuts of the bearing axle with some larger weights that are obviously intended to add to the lateral mass component of the tonearm.

Of course, I'm not sure what to think about this, as I think imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. However, I am not involved at all in this new addition to the Silver tonearm. I can say that the weights are significantly smaller than the ones I use.

I guess that I'll put this to the test along with the other stuff. Kinda took some of the fun out of it. I'm going to talk this over with the guys that want me to evaluate these things.

Tom, I hope that you sent a certified letter to yourself with a drawing of the HiFi mods. Could be grounds for litigation.... ;-)

Tom,
That is hilarious! Are they going to let you keep all that stuff as compensation for "borrowing" your idea? I'm looking forward to your impressions. David may be on to something there.

Chris

Hi guys. I just got off the phone with the dealer and they said that they are not trying to duplicate my idea, but that it made sense to improve that aspect of the arm, and they did a combination of aesthetic improvement and functional improvement by changing the end-cap nuts to this small weight system. And they did like the idea.

To be honest, it is not nearly the significant horizontal mass change that my HiFi system is, and I don't think that it will really be competitive with my mod, due to that. It's sort of like, "HiFi Lite". But I think that it is a step in the right direction for them to improve that area of the arm. I'm sure that it will be better than the original Silver arm because of this, at least a little bit. I was told that there is no price increase related to this change.

So basically, I'm not pissed at anybody about this, and I'm kind of flattered that they thought well enough of my ideas to incorporate this into their arm design. Heck, now that one of the big names has validated my design theories, maybe it could open some doors for me elsewhere.

I made the idea available to anyone that wanted it, for free, on the thread about my mod. I guess they thought that it was good enough to use on the factory arm design. In fact, I'd say that it is quite evident that they did.

So, all you HiFi users, you were right all along, and you got in on the leading edge of tonearm design, by being a little adventurous and putting it on your arms. I congratulate all of you on being true pioneers in analog arm systems.

I've got some other stuff up my sleeve, that I'm working on. Don't worry about that. And it's alot bigger than a tonearm mod.

Damn it, Tom. You tease...

Can you give us a hint?