Anyone try the replica B-60 Fidelity Research VTA?

Dear Nandric: You are the first person who has ever requested that I give them a heart attack (grin).

>some old-fashioned machinist still swear by the old lathes and categorically claim that the talent of the machinist is more imortant then the used kind of lathe (grin).

I fully agree about the talent of the machinist, but I think that we can agree that superior equipment will enable even experienced machinists to do more precise and consistent work.

The person machining the Ikeda Sound IT-VTA-06 is the same person who machines all of the components for the Ikeda tonearms, and FWIW, the Lyra cartridges. He has over 35 years of experience in machining medical / surgical components where any lack of precision is unacceptable. He is not cheap (as you can see by the prices that his work commands), but his quality is truly excellent.

kind regards, jonathan

Dear Lew:

We are talking about low impedance MC cartridges, right?

>The load resistor might affect frequency response but not gain.

If so, wouldn't the MC cartridge frequency curves published in various magazines be non-comparable and essentially meaningless unless there was an industry-standard load resistor value that all magazines adhered to?

kind regards, jonathan

Addendum. I think Lew will have less problems now to
understand the wonders to which the old Maranz 7 is
capable. He may also be interested in the price of 'the
water' because his old Beweridge may need some.
Regarding Australia. I wanted to speed up its developing
potential and lend out one of my better LOMC to 'some'
Aussie. He wrote to me to have never before experienced
such a cart. The best he has ever heard. But , to my big
surprise, the cart was returned after 10 days or so without
any explanation. 'My Gosh' I thought he is probaly insulted
by some of my Serbian jokes. Those however are not
intended as jokes but more like a kind of teasing. So, for
example, by his knee operation I wanted to comfort him
and posted to him the 'Serbian romatic version' of his mis
fortune. According to this interpretation he was catch by
her husband who happely had no firing guns of any kind but
only some baseboll stick...
.

Well I am glad with any contribution but so far only Lew and I wrote about the replica. To summarize: he is satisfy with its functionality and has only some small esthetical problem with the (sticky) siicon oil while my only problem is this damn screw. But what about Thekong's sample, irrespective if its 'fabricator' is from Taiwan or Hong Kong?
Dear Dover, It was wise from me to first check the price of the new B-60 before ordedring one. What is the price per liter of your Holly Water?

Dover, thanks for the explanation. Will be in touch with you very soon.