morch tonearm question.......

Jim,

Do you have any experience with the TCI Viper tonerarm lead from Morch?

Eyiu,

No! Prior to that was using a standard tonearm lead from VPI. Really old lead. Sorry not to have answered sooner, but was out traveling and working.

Jim

Kaput: I agree with Jim. The Dp 6 runs exellent with out damping. It's an exellent, too, tonearm and is in the same league that others tonearms like Graham or Triplanar. This tonearm has a very good design ( japanese Highphonic design ) and very good execution of that design. The company is a low profile company and don't put money trough magazines like TAS or Stereophile, that's why it's not a famous tonearm. You can use any cartridge, that's why has differents arm wands with different effective mass: this permit a ideal match between the tonearm/cartridge combo.
Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

My guess is that the damping fluid isn't really necessary, I've never used it and don't feel the lack. The obvious strategy would be start small. It's not *that*hard to get out, but you're better off getting everything else perking first. Matching cart to arm wand and getting the counterweights situated is *far* more important.

I think the arm is seriously underrated in the US, but more from the fact that it is a painstaking job to get the arm "right." Most don't have the patience or the variety of wands requirted to get any one cart right. I did not find the Moerch compatibility chart to be all that useful. When it's put together properly with a cart it likes, it compares favorably with my Triplanar. YMMV