Tonearm advice

[aball28]

Looking to upgrade my RB250, deck is an SRM Arezzo ultra. Love the look of origin live encounter maybe even illustrious or the cheaper audiomods micrometer.

Wondering if anyone has experience of different arms on an Arezzo.

TIA Allan.

[Scooby]

Looking to upgrade my RB250, deck is an SRM Arezzo ultra. Love the look of origin live encounter maybe even illustrious or the cheaper audiomods micrometer.

Wondering if anyone has experience of different arms on an Arezzo.

TIA Allan.

Sorry, I've never had or even heard an Arezzo. I've had a handful of OL arms and they were all fab. Some people don't seem to like them but I love the clarity and strength they offer.

[Cycleallday]

Audiomods is great and can be made to your exact requirements at no extra cost.

I used to like origin live but they seem to have lost the plot and become too profit orientated.

At least that’s my view as you asked for

Mel

[struth]

I had an Arezzo but had the standard arm on. One of our members had one with a fancy Aussie or N Zealand arm on. My memory is not what it was tonight alas.. pain getting in way lol

[Scooby]

It wasn't "The Wand" by any chance?

Edit: I meant the tonearm, nktnthensource pf your pain lol :lol:

[struth]

That was it yes

[aball28]

Thanks for advice so far, will make a decision in a week or so. Hope you feel better soon Grant.

[Clive197]

I’ve run the OL Encounter for a couple of years now. SQ is excellent and is a huge leap up from the RB250. Currently running the Hana SL in it but will soon be changing back to a Ortofon Cadenza Black. My only 2 niggles with it are the fixed headshell and the fact that there are no weight marking which makes setting tracking a bit of faff.
I would like to upgrade to an arm that does include those 2 features but am worried that the SQ will be poorer unless I spend silly amounts of money.

[Lurch]

I don't know or have experience of your deck, but am also currently running an Encounter 3C with a Hana SL and it's a superb arm. Having the RB250 have you considered sending it to OL for their rewire and structural upgrade, I think it works out at around £200 and really elevates the 250 into another league.

[topoxforddoc]

Allan,

If you have enough in the budget to buy an Illustrious and you're patient, why don't you get a Schroeder Model 2 at £1695 (less than the new price for the Illustrious)? The Schroeders have a great reputation for sound quality and they are all hand built by Frank in Berlin. It has standard Rega tonearm geometry and so it should fit your TT without any significant modification.

https://www.coolgales.com/product/schroder-model-2-tonearm/

It's a bit more fiddly to set up, but the thread and magnet bearing works really well with any cartridge (subject to mass considerations).

Charlie

[Ammonite Audio]

I’ve run the OL Encounter for a couple of years now. SQ is excellent and is a huge leap up from the RB250. Currently running the Hana SL in it but will soon be changing back to a Ortofon Cadenza Black. My only 2 niggles with it are the fixed headshell and the fact that there are no weight marking which makes setting tracking a bit of faff.
I would like to upgrade to an arm that does include those 2 features but am worried that the SQ will be poorer unless I spend silly amounts of money.

I'm very impressed by the new knife-edge bearing Jelco arms - quite a bit more 'grown up' and 'lyrical' compared with other Jelcos but retaining the convenience of swappable headshells, calibrated adjustments etc. Of course, OL's dual pivot design is an intelligent simplification of a knife-edge vertical bearing, and there's much to be said for both approaches, IMO.

[ovlov854]

If I were considering an arm with Rega fitting I would be looking at Audiomods and Audio Note series 2 either the 1 or 2. Tonearm cable upgrades from Audio Origami and Yannis Tome are also worth exploring

[aball28]

Thanks all for your input and advice, spent a lot of time reading reviews etc today. Think I am settled on the OL encounter, hard to find a bad review and members here being happy will probably take the plunge in the next few days.

Cheers, Allan.

[RobbieGong]

Thanks all for your input and advice, spent a lot of time reading reviews etc today. Think I am settled on the OL encounter, hard to find a bad review and members here being happy will probably take the plunge in the next few days.

Cheers, Allan.

Follow your heart / hunch Allan and all the best with it :)

[Zoidburg]

I had the SRM Athena which came as standard with an RB300, later on I upgraded to the DBL Wand (lovely fat carbon armtube mde in new Zealand) which was a lovely visual match for the SRM. Performance wise the arm was stunning, leaps and bounds above the RB, It was a match which worked very well.

There are still pictures of it somewhere in the gallery area.