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Turntable - And Sanity - Question

Hello all,

I have an AR EB-101 that I have had for about 15 years. It has a Shure V15 Type V-MR on it that I have always been pleased with. I'm not thrilled with the arm on this turntable, as it's always felt...cheap to me - as a matter of fact, the screw that mounts the headshell stripped almost as soon as I turned the screw.

I'd like to either replace the arm on the AR with something with headshells that can be changed (I'd like to do that with ease, as I have a couple of other styli) or else buy a Technics SL-1800 or something and use it as my main deck and move the Shure to it.

Any suggestions? This is kind of driving me nuts, as I'm really not coming up with a solution I like; I'm looking to have a good sounding rig that doesn't require much overt care and is ideal for casual listening, but won't hurt my vinyl. Does anybody know if any of the various Technics models really measure up to the AR I have?

Thanks,

John Sellards
vanmeter
marakanetz's avatar
marakanetz
5,473 posts
 
Congratulations,
You've got classic and great deck that isn't produced anymore although is pretty solid budget performer.

A great choice will be SME 3009 or AudioQuest PT9 arms that are fully adjustable and in $150-ish range new to slightly used. A great addition to the arm may be a budget Goldring cartridge that you can choose whichever you can afford at www.needledoctor.com or ebay(preferably new since more-likely it wouldn't have a diamond stylus that's why cheap).
benthar
42 posts
 
Only time I heard this table was with a
linn basic+ arm and Linn k9 cartridge. The synergy between them was amazing, sounded great. However it might be hard to find these, they are discontinued...and the arm has no removable headshell

ps this table also had three mitchell tenderfeet screwed to the baseboard
aceto
273 posts
 
I bought mine in 1981 from Esoteric Audio in Brooklyn Heights. Elliot (he is still there) didn't like the arm either, so he sold them with a Linn Basik arm, which was a great choice. Now my daughter has it. All I did since then was buy a new belt and cartridge.
benthar
42 posts
 
Oh by the way, John, I may be mistaken about the exact model # of the AR turntable I heard. They had a few from the 80's, an EB-101 and also an ES1-LEGEND. It was definitely a Linn basik+ arm and a Linn k9 cart, but I'm not sure if it was an EB-101 or an ES1. There may be a structural difference between the two, and, consequentialy, might be a difference in the synergy between the table and arm/cart.
vanmeter OP
33 posts
 
Thanks to all...I still haven't figured out what to do. I'd love to find an old Technics arm with the adjustable VTA, but they don't seem to be floating around too often!

Regards,

John Sellards
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