Well Tempered or Teres .....

Richard,

I have never heard a WT so I can't comment on them. I can say that if you want black backgrounds and powerful dynamics, a Teres will supply them in spades, especially with the cocobolo base.

Do a search for cocobolo + acrylic + Teres and you'll probably turn up the post by Twl where he compared the two directly in his system. For him, the cocobolo won hands down. Night and day, etc. etc.

For tonearms, again with the goal being maximum dynamics, I'd stick with a gimball based design. Few unipivots will stabilize a cartridge as well, and a stable cartridge body is essential for allowing maximum cantilever acceleration and extension. That's what creates dynamics. My Shelter 901 on an appropriate arm is dynamic as hell. I wouldn't put either Shelter on a Unify.

Enjoy the hunt!

Thanks Doug,

Interesting point with regard to the Gimball based design arms and dynamics, now that I think about it, it does make a lot of sense.

In my heart of hearts I really do feel that the Teres Cocobolo is becoming more of a reality day by day. (Now I just need to take the plunge.)

Richard

In addition to Twl's logical arguments, one of the factors that convinced me of the advantages of dual bearing arms for bass and dynamics was the way I acquired my cartridge.

I knew I wanted a Shelter 901. We listen to a lot of large scale classical, and last year the 901 was being widely discussed as the best cartridge on the planet for that kind of music. People were marveling at its perfect control during the most complex and dynamic passages. They were also remarking on its deep, powerful and musical bass.

Then one showed up for sale here with just 100 hours on it. This is pretty rare so I grabbed it. Out of curiosity I asked the seller why he sold it. "Didn't like the bass." was his answer. WTF?! So I asked what arm he'd used it on. It was the Well Tempered arm. Not exactly a unipivot but certainly not a gimbal design either. I didn't say anything of course, but he should have kept the Shelter and sold the WT arm.

Everything everybody was saying about the 901 is true. Properly supported and set up, it continues to astonish us every day. IMO a low compliance cartridge like this performs best when provided with a very stable platform, ie, a high mass non-suspended TT and a dual bearing arm. Really good suspended tables like a top Basis, SME or Walker might do as well, but they all cost $15K+.

Doug,

Appreciate the story, sure sounds like you did well on the Shelter purchase :)

I see that you have done the "TWL's HiFi Mod" on your Origin Live Silver Mk I, that mod has always interested me and with my present setup I am unable to implement it.

I am thinking maybe starting out with a stock RB250, (Juki's got the RB250 for ~ $200) then doing a one shot rewire from cart clips to RCA's, stub and counterweight replacement, and of course the TWL mod.

Any thoughts on the difficulty factor of doing the rewire ? (I like to "get my hands dirty", am detail oriented, with mechanical/electrical ability.)

Of course, this RB250 arm thing may be just a passing thought--

Decisions Decisions...

Now what I REALLY need to do is get my pen a little closer to my checkbook and make out a check to Teres! (I am giving myself a 2 month deadline to do so.)

I have trouble changing the batteries in a flashlight without screwing up, guess I'm electrically challenged. I've never rewired an arm, but lots of others have done the Expressimo rewire so I guess it's doable.

Chris Brady is totally swamped at the moment so his lead times are a little stretched. Be prepared to wait some if you do decide to take the plunge.

The HIFI mod is a killer. If you go the Rega route and buy the weights from Twl, you get the extra benefit of being able to add my mod to his mod. Twl's weights accommodate a micro-VTF adjuster I discovered. It lets you change VTF over a .15g range without moving the counterweight! Big benefit for VTF-sensitive cartridges like the Shelters.

Yes, I'm nuts and no, it never stops!