Why haven't we heard more about HR-X???

fremer was also lukewarm on the aries, which is a stunning looking and sounding player. the jmw arm is solid and easy to use, and has very accurate cueing. i placed some support discs under the cone-feet for stability- you can get them anywhere.
the motor must weigh 12 lbs. i had a thorens for years, but the vpi was a pretty big leap in performance. fremer likes what no one carries- unless you live in n.y. i guess. then,
he'll spend a week setting up and tweaking some exotic $20,000 tt, then tell everyone how great it is. all that just to play a 5.99 used record.

FWIW this table was glowingly reviewed by Roy Gregory in HiFi+ magazine and was even one of their products of the year for last year.

Rick,

I was familiar with and liked the Graham arm from my preceding turntable, and it has been my impression that it is a better arm than the JMW in its several iterations. Without having had the JMW, this was just a guess on my part, derived from reading reviews and talking to people.

I respected the engineering thought and sophistication of the Graham arm, as well as the HR-X. I thought they would be a good match. One thing that has always held me up on the JMW arm is the application of antiskating force through the torque on the signal leads. I suppose it works fine, but it never struck me as a solution that a thorough engineer would come up with. (I know, that's harsh.) It made me less comfortable with the design of the rest of the arm. Just my personal bias -- but hey it's my money.

I'm used to picking arms separately from tables, just like picking a phono preamp is a separate decision from picking the line preamp (for me).

At first, I thought I would also ask for a spring suspension instead of the HR-X's airbags. After some thought and talking with my dealer about the advantages of airbags versus springs, I gave it up and went with the stock airbags. Accordingly, the only custom part of my HR-X is the arm and its mount. VPI was kind enough to fabricate a mount to fit the Graham arm, which obviously wouldn't work with the bigger, stock JMW arm. By the way, I don't have the VPI dustcover, but I have a very nice one made by Vinh Vu of Gingko Audio (what a great guy). It all sounds great. Sorry for rambling.

I wonder why anyone would care what pseudo-intellectual gas bags in Stereophile or other magazines would recommend. Aside from being unemployed DJs, I'm not aware of any credentials that they have in terms of turntable or electronic design. Just my personal opinion. Audiophiles should listen for themselves and not depend upon fickle, "professional" reviewers. I would trust the opinion of one of the Audiogon regulars over a magazine reviewer almost every time.

There were two HR-X turntables at HE2003 in SF last year, and both sounded divine. As Jond said, HiFi+ loved the unit and that magazine has a lot street cred. Still, I am surprised that TAS hasn't had a look at one. Stereophile? - the other posters have summed up the situation very well.

Regards,