I had an F9E for a short while.... it suffered a disaster! There was a stupid fad at the time for cleaning styli using the striker from safety matches, which was endorsed by Linn and several of the mags, and so, being a daft 20 year old at the time, this is how I cleaned the stylus of my new and very expensive Grace F9E (£128 in 1985 IIRC but that is completely from memory). I recall it being a stunningly good MM, one of the best ever, but after about 3-4 months use it seemed to have really "gone off"... I took it to a local hi fi shop who had a stylus magnifier and they told me it was completely worn out
Arkless Electronics-Engineered to be better. Tel. 01670 530674 (after 1pm)
Modded Thorens TD150, Audio Technica AT-1005 MkII, Technics EPC-300MC, Arkless Hybrid MC phono stage, Arkless passive pre, Arkless 50WPC Class A SS power amp, (or) Arkless modded Leak Stereo 20, Modded Kef Reference 105/3's
ReVox PR99, Studer B62, Ferrograph Series 7, Tandberg TCD440, Hitachi FT-5500MkI, also FT-5500MkII
Digital: Yamaha CDR-HD1500 (Digital Swiss army knife-CD recorder, player, hard drive, DAC and ADC in one), PC files via 24/96 sound card and SPDIF, modded Philips CD850, modded Philips CD104, modded DPA Little Bit DAC. Sennheiser HD580 cans with Arkless Headphone amp.
Cables- free interconnects that come with CD players, mains leads from B&Q, dead kettles etc, extension leads from Tesco