Upgrade Tonearm for VPI Aries 3

RE"Did you notice you had to continually make adjustments with the 10.5i arm ?"

No.

Check the counter weight hex bolt for tightness. It may be too loose, if so just tighten it up a bit. BTW, I have an Aries-3 also and two arm tubes, one with Discovery cable and the other with the Nordost.

M~

Moondog + Macster,

I will upgrade my preamp and phono within a few months.
I am considering a Herron line stage and phono or Coincident RC line stage and Zesto phono.

Currently I have a Supratek Cortese preamp with phono.

Records sound nice but it seems like I notice sss a little exaggerated and it is usually azimuth off a little.
I also notice my weight varies which is ok but I adjust it and sometimes the azimuth is off a little and I adjust it .

Eventually I will replace the tonearm and maybe table .
I enjoy listening to records and I would like a more solid tonearm that doesn't require constant adjustments.

And the counter weight is snug.

Thanks for the comments.

You have a unipivot tonearm that changes azimuth and VTF. A loose counterweight could do that but yours is ok. Does your arm clear the lift when playing? Are the tonearm wires binding between the arm and the connection block? Is the anti-skate ok? Is the cartridge suspension damaged? Is the point on the unipivot damaged? Is your counterweight hitting anything?

I have a new Aries 3 with the 3D arm.
I like the table but I'm not a big fan of the arm.
I'm sure the engineering & manufacturing is top notch but the design of this uni-pivot arm is not for me.
I've owned gimbaled, uni-pivot, and linear tracking arms. This is - for me - the twitchiest arm I've ever owned. Even with the Soundsmith counterweight gizmo, this arm is very difficult to set.
The deal killer for me is that I have no confidence in the my settings. When trying to really "dial it in" it is too easy to lose the rough settings. Eventually I just quit trying when I think it is OK.
This is not where I want to be with a rig at this price point.
Anyone know if a Tri-planar or a Kuzma 4Point can be rigged to work on the Aries 3?

Wlutke,

Thank you for the suggestions,
The cartridge is only 3 months old,the lift is clear but I never though of looking at the wires.

I'll check them.