REXTON'S - 1210 Ebony Armboard Review.. Enjoy!

[Wakefield Turntables]

Firstly I have no link to Steve in any way shape or form.
Secondly, this was typed up roughly so forgot grammer, spelling, punctuation etc

ok, READ..

Speedy Steve's Ebony Tonearm board for SME V & Ebony SME 7mm Spacer
-------------------------------------------------------------------


The first thing I noticed after I installed the new tonearm board was that my soundstage had changed and I wasnt happy. A change in my soundstage always
worries me because its taken me years to get to the level that I'm at and it's something I do not want to loose ever again! After I told myself to stop worrying I sat down for an evenings listening. I began to smile after my second record (Jazz at Storyville - Dave Brubeck) by noticing that the central aspect of my soundstage appears solid and focused and I would say slightly wider than what I'm used to when compared to the Mike New (MN) tonearm board.
There has been some talk of how resonance could be introduced into tonearm with this system by a two piece spacer and armboard and this is a perfectly valid point to make. I have no idea how this would ultimately present itself to my ears through my system but I certainly dont think it presented itself in my system in such a way as to spoil my nights listening to the 1210 whilst writing these notes. Perhaps a few more tweeks and dampening in certain areas could help? Perhaps one way in which it may present itself is a loss of top end. I played Four Seasons - Nigel Kennedy (Pressed EMI Germany) and with the old MN copper tonearm board the opening Allegro could sound a little shouty and strident this was reduced down a peg or two with the new ebony armboard and produced a positive result which was pleasing to the ears, but, on recordings where cymbals should shimmer I noticed a slight dulling so it could be a case of paying Paul to rob Peter.

Loosing the high end is a small sacrifice to pay because yet again I feel I have found a nice upgrade that allows me to see further into the mix of a record. This became apparant when listening to Sad Wings of Destiny by Judas Priest I heard a sigh just prior to the song dreamer deciever on side A that had got lost in the mix. The finest test of any new upgrade on my 1210 is to listen to Dream Theater and one song in particular - Lost Not Forgotten, I own 500+ prog records and this has to be the most complex piece of prog I have ever heard with notes flying around like machine gun tracer. So far no piece of kit has managed to fully unravel this melee of complexity. Well, I'm still disappointed in that the ebony arm board and spacer where no different but I did notice less congestion in the complexity of the song as I played it. In my system this may not sound like a glowing endorsement but it sure as hell put a smile on my face. I honestly dont think that piece of music will ever be fully unravelled no matter how much money you through at it 8-). I then switched over to a record I've had since my youth "Powerslave" by Iron Maiden. I'm on my

3rd copy now and have listened to this album at least once a month for the last 27 years. I was initially very disappointed with the presentation of when I heard Bruce Dickinson bemoaning the downside of immortality on "powerslave" his voice sounded "cuppy" and I was forced to re-listen to this again. What I actually heard was additional echo and reverb on his vocals which I just hadn't heard before in any of my previous systems. Needless to say this was another ear-to-ear grin, I had discovered another new section in a record that I thought I knew back-to-front. Steve Harris's bass on Rhyme of the Ancient was just as I always rememebered it. This led me to try some other bass heavy stuff so I tried the first track of Steve Wilson's - The Raven That Refused to Sing and noticed less bloom to the bass, at first I percieved this as a loss of bass and then I noticed that the bass had tightened up quite nicely. I tried Van Halen 1984 - "Hot for Teacher", her Alex van Halen cracks out a monster drum solo that will test the mettle of any vinyl system with plenty of percussion and thunderous bass drum intro. The ebony armboard lost non of the impact and heft of this solo, so another feather in the cap of the armboard, and perhaps another is it's ability to show deficiences or weaknessess in your system this happened a couple of times when extra detail was presented into my soundstage. I could go on but I think I need to end this review.

CONCLUSION

I dont usually jump on the upgrade band wagon when it comes to the 1210. I tried several new platters and decided that my old Mike New aluminium/copper platter was still king 'o the crop and I was quite vocal on AOS in rejecting it when compared to some of the newer platters made by Mike himself and the Funk platters which have been doing the rounds. I almost half expected sending this armboard back or selling it on, but, fortunately this was not to be the case.

I have certainly lost nothing by installing the new ebony armboard and spacer and all the chracteristics that make my system sound excellent are still in place. A nice wide solid sounstage. Instruments seperated with ease, an ability to see into complicated mix's. PraT,Bass and slam to smack yer face in etc etc,can you tell I love my 1210? Simply the best deck I've ever had. All this has just got better, not by massive amounts but just enough to realise the money I spent on the armboard was worth the investment and enabled me to edge further up the path to sonic nirvana. The ebony armboard highlighted the fact that whilst the Mike New solid copper tonearm board is an excellent product it needed to be changed in my system to enable greater detail and sonic improvements to shine through.

Well done Steve, you have my endorsement for this product.

Negatives

+ I lost a very very small amount of high end tizz to cymbals.
+ I lost a very very small amount of bass lower end with bass drum on some recordings sounded a little muffled - RARE.

Positives

+ Fantastic value for money
+ Fantastic service
+ Quality
+ Looks excellent and just "right" for the 1210
+ Does a great job Isolating the tonearm with a nice resounding "thunk" when you tap it and NO feedback through the speakers.
+ Gives an increased solidity to the bass.
+ More coherence to my soundstage
+ Improved microdetail with greater insight into the mix of a recording
+ Helps you rediscover new bits to old records

[Marco]

Nice one, Andy. Glad it’s hit the spot - told ya!

IMO, anyone serious about modding the Techy to the highest level should consider the fitting of one of Steve’s ebony arm boards as mandatory

Marco.

[Tarzan]

What is the ebony SME spacer Andy?

[Wakefield Turntables]

It's a simple 7mm spacer that I had made so that my SME V would have more height when used with the mike new al/cu platter. Speedy Steve's original design didn't quite provide enough vertical height for my setup so we came up with the spacer. It's already been suggested that a better solution would have been to incorporate the spacer and have a new armboard made from one piece of ebony to minimise resonance. Personally I can hear very little wrong with the solution installed on my deck, no doubt, somebody will have a differing opinion rubbishing the solution that's installed .

[Marco]

I don’t think anyone would ‘rubbish’ it, mate; perhaps merely suggest alternatives. The bottom line is that you’re happy with what the ebony arm board has brought to the party

Marco.

[Andrei]

Andy, thank you very much for this input. You clearly have a revealing system and I appreciate it as one who is 'half-way' there with my 1210 mods. I won't do this mod with my current tonearm but will request it when (or I should say 'if' given my current state of penury) I upgrade my tonearm. As an aside I suspect that you do what I do with upgrades: you play favourite tracks you are acquainted / familiar / intimate with and so can make a fairly easy distinction between 'now' and 'then'. Great (carefully considered) review, affirmation to the armboard maker, and thanks again!!

[chris@panteg]

Bit late in the day Andy ,but did you know that Isonoe make an armboard especially for SME arms to fit the SL1200mk2 out of Magnesium , no idea how much it cost or where to get them from though , it is listed with pics on the Isonoe site.

[Wakefield Turntables]

I don’t think anyone would ‘rubbish’ it, mate; perhaps merely suggest alternatives. The bottom line is that you’re happy with what the ebony arm board has brought to the party

Marco.

Fair do's.

Andy, thank you very much for this input. You clearly have a revealing system and I appreciate it as one who is 'half-way' there with my 1210 mods. I won't do this mod with my current tonearm but will request it when (or I should say 'if' given my current state of penury) I upgrade my tonearm. As an aside I suspect that you do what I do with upgrades: you play favourite tracks you are acquainted / familiar / intimate with and so can make a fairly easy distinction between 'now' and 'then'. Great (carefully considered) review, affirmation to the armboard maker, and thanks again!!

Thanks for the +ve feedback! Yep I do exactly what you do I listen to some old favourites and then see what changes I can detect. I try and have a wide selection of music from varied genre's that why I can hopefully so how an individual component is affectecing my system.

Bit late in the day Andy ,but did you know that Isonoe make an armboard especially for SME arms to fit the SL1200mk2 out of Magnesium , no idea how much it cost or where to get them from though , it is listed with pics on the Isonoe site.

Chris, nope I had no idea isonoe made the armboard but I would suspect that it would suffer from the same problem as the original version of the ebony tonearm board in that the SME might sit slightly to recessed and I would struggle for arm height. I would suspect magnesium would be an excellent match for the SME V. I did find this thread http://theartofsound.net/forum/showt...n-SL1200/page2 and I have posted some comments about my old Mike New tonearm board. I didn't realise that I'd used the copper tonearm board since 2010-11ish. I would suspect however that there wouldn't be that might difference bewteen the ebony and magnesium armboards in that they both do a great job in dampening the V. Sonically it might be better than ebony but thats another review in another few years..........

[chris@panteg]

It's the opposite on my 1210 Andy, I need my 309 to sit as low as possible as I prefer no mat.

[Wakefield Turntables]

TBH Chris the ebony armboard would have worked perfectly ok but I use the resomat and IMHO I think its better than the 5mm acromat that I own, hence the need for the 7mm spacer. I also had an eye to the future with regards any new mats that might be excessively thick or for cartridges that required odd VTA's.