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Ammonite Audio
06-08-2016, 11:05
Here's my newly acquired Fidelity Research FR64S tonearm, installed on the old TD-124 with an armboard kindly donated by Tom (Montesquieu of this parish). I'd wanted one of these arms for some time since the Miyajima cartridges do like a bit of mass, and the FR64S has plenty of mass. The physical quality of this arm is astonishing - I shudder to think what it would cost to produce nowadays. The arm needs a good clean, but it all works and the tracking force dial is 100% accurate, which is very impressive after at least 30 years. Here it is, with a new Miyajima Waza cartridge that has just joined my demo fleet (the Oyaide headshell is being used because the FR one presently has no wires):

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s301/hugocass/IMG_20160806_110810_zpsn04ax7w3.jpg
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s301/hugocass/IMG_20160806_110820_zpsicy3nvzb.jpg
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s301/hugocass/IMG_20160806_110845_zpskvmnsocd.jpg

Barry
06-08-2016, 18:31
I had never thought of using a white finish arm board - but it looks quite good on your 124. :)

(Just need some 'dove grey' touch-up paint for the Thorens chassis. ;))

Ammonite Audio
07-08-2016, 10:43
It's cream, actually, but this armboard is only temporary! I have a nice solid ash armboard coming from Estonia, which I may stain to make it look ebonised - see http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=182227286468 . The maker uses layers of the solid wood arranged at right angles to each other, so hopefully no risk of warping. I hope that it sounds as good as it looks.

I quite like the slightly tatty honesty of the deck's original paintwork: in other words, I can't be arsed to strip it down for a respray! The Jim Campbell plinth needs more tidying up than the deck's chassis - at some point I'll get it rubbed down and resprayed a nice silky, period black, and I may even stick a gold script Ortofon badge on the front to make it resemble my original ST104 plinth that's too valuable to use and lives safely cocooned in bubble wrap. With luck, I'll have the TD-124 ready and looking smart in time for next April's Styl:us vinyl show at Heathrow, where it will probably be demonstrating Miyajima and Audio Technica mono cartridges, while the KD-990 will be serving up flavours of Miyajima stereo.