Mission 774 on a Logic DM 101...advise, possible improvements for the arm ?

[torstoi]

Hi there,
I got pointed towards a Logic DM 101 deck, looked around a bit & could get my hands on a black one about a year ago,
but...without an arm.

So, I looked around what I could pair this 80's kind of physically impressive monster with.
It had to go within the scheme of the not-trying-to-be-beautiful weirdness & 80s ARTARI lettering style.

Tonearm from out of space ?
The Mission 774 came to my mind very soon, due and mainly to reports and comments I've seen around in this place.

I've landed a 774 now and it should arrive this week.
Cartridge shall be a Linn Troika (compliance 10), so from the colourscheme worn-black deck, black arm with red front lettering and red cartridge will be fine.

The question is, will the rest be fine, too ?

I read up about the deck, the arm and the cart a bit.
Some reports of experience are exactly the opposite of others, so trying to find out what might be right was kind of an educated guess up to now.

For the deck some wrote it should not be paired with an arm that is too haevy,
the suspension is quite soft obviously, so this makes sense to me in some way. I don't definitely know it is correct, though.
The Mission fits this perfectly, it is quite a light arm.
Some wrote the Logic DM 101 will not work with a Linn Ittok or Ekos as it is too haevy for the suspension.
Others wrote their best match on the Logic was an SME IV & praised that combination to heaven,
quite interesting to me, as the SME IV is heavier than an Ekos still. (So that's a bit puzzling to me, comments welcome.)
My first goal is to keep the suspension of the 101 happy with the arm choice.

2) Arm quality in total, apart from it's weight.
I also looked at possible alternatives, my mind was set on cool looking outsiders, mainly in black finish.
(From looks alone, a Funk FX with red TA tube would probably be a bomb.)
I took a look at the Logic arms they had by then.. (kind of logic if the pun is allowed..
Some praised them, others said they are....erhh..not so good.
Obviously Manticore continued the arms from Logic at the point where Logic crashed & improved them by another step.
The follower to Logic Datum is said to be the Manticore Musician and/ or Magician.
And also here, you guessed it, some said they are great, while others..

Long story short, I checked out a bit, but I want to remain within the SME mounting scheme my DM 101 has
to make things not more complicated for now.

It was suggested to me to avoid mounting an arm via an adapter, as a directly coupled arm will benefit most from the sonic advantage of the missing armboard,
the Logic's arm is sitting on a huge, massive alloy subchassis, so the direct coupling is very good. (Probably better than LP12 b4 Keel for that part..)
I have little idea how much negative effect an adapter could have, if hair-splitting theory or if it has a negative effect on sound I could hear,
anyway...it seemed to make some sense to me.
Logic Datum and Manticore have both Linn type mount, so for now I won't go for any of this,
but I'm interested in comments about their quality, particularly in comparison to the 774.

3) Last, the Mission shall be paired with Linn's Troika, the 774 w/o damping would not be optimal for that cart, but with damping via paddels
it should be possible to get it pretty much spot on working perfectly.
That's a feature I really rate high on the 774.

And finally I am interested in which way the 774 can be improved and 'tuned' later.
Comments welcome & thx if you had the patience to read so far..

Kind regards, T