Do I replace my tonearm

[guero]

Since I now use a Raford sta25 and Audiolab 8000c my records sound much better. I put this down to the super Radford but also the match between my Transfiguration spirit and the mc phonostage of the Audiolab. I seem to be enjoying a fuller and punchier sound. That said I haven’t bothered much with my Unitiqute recently. Going through two preamp stages can’t be doing it any favours.
I am considering selling the Unitiqute, using the funds plus extra to replace my Roksan Nima which I use with the Pink Triangle 1. Now, I don’t have much experience with different tone arms having only ever used a couple. I am looking for suggestions for a tonearm that will improve significantly on the Nima and suit the PT1. I am likely to have the Transig re-tipped when needed and continue to use it alongside a reserve cartridge such as a Lyra Delos or similar. I don’t need a removable headshell. I am aware of people using Alphason and Zeta arms but I’m unsure just how these would compare to my Nima and I know that finding one in good condition might be a challenge. Anyone tried the Funkfirm fx3 or an SME V? I read somewhere that re-wiring a V with Better makes a big difference. Would an Audiomod arm be a set up?
Your input would be appreciated!

[Audio Al]

Also concider a Graham phantom arm :)

[guero]

I would love to hear one- aren’t they stratospherically expensive?

[guero]

Any thoughts on the SME 309?.

[Lurch]

Am currently using an Origin Live Encounter 3C on My Brinkmann Bardo. Its a stonkingly good arm and not silly money new for what it's capable of. No azimuth adjustment, but does have on the fly VTA adjustment.

[ovlov854]

Am currently using an Origin Live Encounter 3C on My Brinkmann Bardo. Its a stonkingly good arm and not silly money new for what it's capable of. No azimuth adjustment, but does have on the fly VTA adjustment.

I heard this at Kegworth and Lurch is right ......a fabulous sound

[ovlov854]

I would love to hear one- aren’t they stratospherically expensive?

Yes they are!!!!!!!!!!!

[antonio]

The Funk Firm fx3 would be an obvious choice, the alternative, the new Audiomods mentioned on another thread.

[Bigman80]

Since I now use a Raford sta25 and Audiolab 8000c my records sound much better. I put this down to the super Radford but also the match between my Transfiguration spirit and the mc phonostage of the Audiolab. I seem to be enjoying a fuller and punchier sound. That said I haven’t bothered much with my Unitiqute recently. Going through two preamp stages can’t be doing it any favours.
I am considering selling the Unitiqute, using the funds plus extra to replace my Roksan Nima which I use with the Pink Triangle 1. Now, I don’t have much experience with different tone arms having only ever used a couple. I am looking for suggestions for a tonearm that will improve significantly on the Nima and suit the PT1. I am likely to have the Transig re-tipped when needed and continue to use it alongside a reserve cartridge such as a Lyra Delos or similar. I don’t need a removable headshell. I am aware of people using Alphason and Zeta arms but I’m unsure just how these would compare to my Nima and I know that finding one in good condition might be a challenge. Anyone tried the Funkfirm fx3 or an SME V? I read somewhere that re-wiring a V with Better makes a big difference. Would an Audiomod arm be a set up?
Your input would be appreciated!There's some good arms out there but my personal favourite bis the Phonomac AT1010. A few of us have one on AoS and they have replaced some very well known tonearms. That includes Alphasson HRS100's too.

I'm not sure of your budget or whether it would suit your turntable but it would be madness not to recommend it.

The Audiomods arms are well priced and I love the micrometer on them. Can't see the pics of the new one but if it doesn't have Azimuth adjustment, I wouldn't buy it.

Good luck!

[wino2020]

The Spirit is an excellent cart and worth maximising. Plenty choice in arms. I presume that the Nima is a typical Rega fitment and geometry so having something with similar would minimise changeover issues.
Two others I would suggest are the Acoustic Signature TA series, which has magnificent engineering and multiple length options, and of course an Audio Origami. Second hand AO are not infrequent these days.

[AJSki2fly]

Anyone tried the Funkfirm fx3 or an SME V? I read somewhere that re-wiring a V with Better makes a big difference. Would an Audiomod arm be a set up?
Your input would be appreciated!

Chris, I have been looking at changing my TT and a Pink Triangle was in my list, during my investigations I came across several comments on various forums that and SME V did not work as well with a Pink Triangle as a IV. I suspect this may be due to the tone difference between the two arms. I currently have an SME IV which I find very good on my Gyrodec but I am aware that SME arms can have a reputation for having a slightly dry tone, this should be countered for I believe with a PT as they have a reputation for an extremely good mid-range. I have been told that a Koetsu RED works very well with an SME IV on a Pink Triangle but have not heard it.

I also came across an Acoustic Research TA-1000 arm in use on a different TT see - https://www.audioemotion.co.uk/acoustic-signature-ta-1000-tone-arm-4311-p.asp, I don't think we see them much in the UK. Two respected dealers with great knowledge recommended this arm to me, both indicating it gives a very musical and neutral rendition, and it punches well above its RRP. One dealer said that in his opinion this was the better arm in their range, it just works, so he was saying not to spend money on a more expensive one as they could be a bit clinical.

If you considered the TA-1000 then I would try and get a loaner if at all possible or take your PT and cartridge to a dealer to set it up and try. Bear in mind that the TA-1000 is a lighter arm and you would need to consider its compatibility with your cartridge, although if you could consider another cartridge with the money saved, possibly a Benz Micro Wood SL or Ruby Z or Ebony S, these are very musical cartridges IMO. See the review it has and effective mass of 12gm and weighs in at 895gm, slightly lighter than a SME IV at 1100gm, but it should work.

From my what I have been told about Pink Triangles is that they do not necessarily produce real punchy bass, that does not mean they do not produce bass just not big bass. With this in mind than a cartridge/arm combo good across the frequency range will be important.

I hope this is useful or helps a bit.

[wino2020]

I bought my TA1000 from Audio Emotion and I would agree it is a superb arm. They do give very good advice too so could certainly comment on suitability for a PT. I now have an AO 12” which is essentially twice the price and is thankfully a bit better! So I can also vouch VFM of the TA1000.

[guero]

Thanks for the suggestions chaps- Adrian your post was very comprehensive and has given me something to think about. I will do some research and try for a demo with my deck if it looks a good fit. I'd like to see what I can get out of the PT and the transfiguration. I have heard that the deck doesn't do huge bass, that said I don't feel I'm missing anything. I am mindful of the need to match carefully so a demo is clearly the way forward.

[guero]

Yes, the phonoMac is very interesting and I will look into whether it would be a good combo with a PT. I seem to see them on decks without suspension more often than not.

[guero]

Yes, the Nima is Rega geometry- I have a company called true point down the road who make arm boards for Pink Triangles. In fact they seem to specialize in them! I will have a look at the arms you have mentioned. Cheers

[montesquieu]

The Audionote arms are Rega geometry and absolutely superb. I used one to great effect on a Voyd with an Audio Note Io, and before that with Shelter 501, Ortofon Jubilee and Koetsu Rosewood. (You can get a heavier counterweight for heavier cartridges so you aren't restricted to high-medium compliance ones like you are with a lot of Rega variants.

The standard arm with copper arm cable is pretty reasonable too, the sweet spot from my perspective is the Arm2 which has silver internal wiring and an Audio Note AN-V silver litz arm cable that would cost more than half the value of the arm if you bought it separately.

If I didn't need removable headshell arms I'd happily have one of these again. Available in silver or black.

https://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj263/durant24/horns%20paint/wp68f695a0_05.jpg[/URL]

[Audio Al]

Am currently using an Origin Live Encounter 3C on My Brinkmann Bardo. Its a stonkingly good arm and not silly money new for what it's capable of. No azimuth adjustment, but does have on the fly VTA adjustment.

+1 :exactly:

[richmain]

Origin live arms beats any others i have ever had regardless of price.The Encounter is a good place to start,sold my S.M.E. V for one of these and have worked up to the Enterprise (12 inch).

[montesquieu]

Another arm worth thinking about, more expensive than the bargain-priced AudioNote arms but worth a look is the Timestep 609, I had the 12in version of this and would probably still have it if an Ikeda IT-407 hadn't come along. Available in 9, 10 and 12in and with the (for me) all important removable headshell.

https://ammonite-audio.co.uk/product/timestep-tonearm/

http://www.soundhifi.com/images/T-612-SPU.jpg

As for the Origin Live stuff I'm really not a fan of Rega-derived tonearms they do tend to restrict you somewhat to high-medium compliance cartridges when the real interest these days is in medium-low compliance.

In between the Audio Note Arm1 and the Timestep is the new Jelco range too, knife-edge bearing and all, I heard the TK-850 on Petrat's Platine Verdier and I thought it was a really excellent performer.

https://ammonite-audio.co.uk/product/jelco-tk-850s-9-tonearm/

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/zYoAAOSwjHNbc~bb/s-l1600.jpg

[AJSki2fly]

Thanks for the suggestions chaps- Adrian your post was very comprehensive and has given me something to think about. I will do some research and try for a demo with my deck if it looks a good fit. I'd like to see what I can get out of the PT and the transfiguration. I have heard that the deck doesn't do huge bass, that said I don't feel I'm missing anything. I am mindful of the need to match carefully so a demo is clearly the way forward.

Chris, a very knowledgable friend and dealer who has sold a lot of arms and carts in his time, and used to be a PT dealer told me that the Koetsu Red works very well with a PT but a Koetsu works best with slightly heavier arms, I think and SME is about the limit from what he said. I think some of the other arms suggested may work well as well depending on what Cart you go for. On the subject of Cartridges, I recently trialled at home a Phasemation PP-300 which was extremely revealing and good bass, slightly more detail at the top than my current cartridge which is a Michell Cusis (a Benz Micro Wood SL in another body). Your Transfiguration should be good as well, but might be worth trying it new arm before re-tipping if it is still performing OK.

If you want more advice on arms I can ask my friend for you, what he doesn't know about TT's, Arms and Cartridges isn't worth knowing. Throughout his life in hifi he buys stuff and tries it before condemning or recommending and in multiple configurations, so he knows what works and doesn't.

[montesquieu]

Chris, a very knowledgable friend and dealer who has sold a lot of arms and carts in his time, and used to be a PT dealer told me that the Koetsu Red works very well with a PT but a Koetsu works best with slightly heavier arms, I think and SME is about the limit from what he said. I think some of the other arms suggested may work well as well depending on what Cart you go for. On the subject of Cartridges, I recently trialled at home a Phasemation PP-300 which was extremely revealing and good bass, slightly more detail at the top than my current cartridge which is a Michell Cusis (a Benz Micro Wood SL in another body). Your Transfiguration should be good as well, but might be worth trying it new arm before re-tipping if it is still performing OK.

If you want more advice on arms I can ask my friend for you, what he doesn't know about TT's, Arms and Cartridges isn't worth knowing. Throughout his life in hifi he buys stuff and tries it before condemning or recommending and in multiple configurations, so he knows what works and doesn't.


Koetsu working or not working with a PT is nothing to do with the TT and everything to do with the tonearm.

As you say, Koetsu prefer heavier tonearms and in my view none of the Rega-derived ones would really do an optimal job with one. Transfiguration are on the medium to low compliance side too generally, and like a reasonably massy tonearm. As you say in both cases SME V would be about as lightweight as you'd want to go and really you want a bit more mass to get the best out of them.

[AJSki2fly]

Koetsu working or not working with a PT is nothing to do with the TT and everything to do with the tonearm.

As you say, Koetsu prefer heavier tonearms and in my view none of the Rega-derived ones would really do an optimal job with one. Transfiguration are on the medium to low compliance side too generally, and like a reasonably massy tonearm. As you say in both cases SME V would be about as lightweight as you'd want to go and really you want a bit more mass to get the best out of them.

Quite agree. I would not go to SME V on Pink Triangle TT as can sound a little dry I have been told, but SME IV works apparently, although I have not tried it. But I suppose it depends on your listening preferences.

[montesquieu]

Out and out bargain here:

https://pinkfishmedia.net/forum/threads/audio-note-arm-v2-tonearm.226500/

[Barry]

Koetsu working or not working with a PT is nothing to do with the TT and everything to do with the tonearm.

As you say, Koetsu prefer heavier tonearms and in my view none of the Rega-derived ones would really do an optimal job with one. Transfiguration are on the medium to low compliance side too generally, and like a reasonably massy tonearm. As you say in both cases SME V would be about as lightweight as you'd want to go and really you want a bit more mass to get the best out of them.

There is nothing preventing you adding mass at the headshell to increase the effective mass of a fixed-headshell tonearm.

[montesquieu]

There is nothing preventing you adding mass at the headshell to increase the effective mass of a fixed-headshell tonearm.

Perhaps ... somehow I think an arm designed for higher mass works better with the extra mass. I've always ended up with that as the solution, I've never quite got middleweight arms to shine with low compliance cartridges.

[Barry]

Perhaps ... somehow I think an arm designed for higher mass works better with the extra mass. I've always ended up with that as the solution, I've never quite got middleweight arms to shine with low compliance cartridges.

Low compliance cartidges will put a lot of unused energy into the arm, so it might be that high mass arms are such because they use a thick-walled arm tube for stiffness and rigidity, so preventing the excitation of arm tube resonances.

However that said I have had success in using a Denon 103 in a heavy Fidelity Research headshell (FR S-3?) on an SME 3009 arm. I have also successfully used low compliance moving coil cartridges in a Breuer Dynamic arm, having an effective mass of only 4g!

[Primalsea]

As the Nima that you curently have is a unipivot moving to a more expensive gimbal bearing tonearm will give you more in someways but also less in other ways. You may find that bass is better defined, if you match the arm and cartridge well, but you may feel that in other areas you loose something.

As Barry said there is nothing to stop you dding mass to the headshell but also there is an option to add mass to the bearing assembly as well. This is quite easy to do on a Nima as the bearing cup has a flat top. Might be worth experimenting a little with adding mass to the Nima as it might give you some idea of which direction to go in with he new purchase.

[AJSki2fly]

Chris, a very knowledgable friend and dealer who has sold a lot of arms and carts in his time, and used to be a PT dealer told me that the Koetsu Red works very well with a PT but a Koetsu works best with slightly heavier arms, I think and SME is about the limit from what he said. I think some of the other arms suggested may work well as well depending on what Cart you go for. On the subject of Cartridges, I recently trialled at home a Phasemation PP-300 which was extremely revealing and good bass, slightly more detail at the top than my current cartridge which is a Michell Cusis (a Benz Micro Wood SL in another body). Your Transfiguration should be good as well, but might be worth trying it new arm before re-tipping if it is still performing OK.

If you want more advice on arms I can ask my friend for you, what he doesn't know about TT's, Arms and Cartridges isn't worth knowing. Throughout his life in hifi he buys stuff and tries it before condemning or recommending and in multiple configurations, so he knows what works and doesn't.

Chris my friend called me today about something else, but he said he had seen my post above and that I was spot on with respect to a PT with SME and Koetsu Red. Be careful buying an arm hoping that it will work with a Pink Triangle without knowing it will, also you need to be careful the cartridge selection to get a good result. As for adding weights to arms I believe this a a very tricky game to play, the arms mass is defined by the whole thing and how it resonants and deals with vibrations is down to the materials it is made of and how dense it is, sticking a weight on an arm will not necessarily improve how it behaves or sounds, this is what I have been told anyway.

[Spectral Morn]

Also concider a Graham phantom arm :)

Way too heavy for a PT1, and the mounting base is very large so might not fit either.

[Spectral Morn]

As the Nima that you curently have is a unipivot moving to a more expensive gimbal bearing tonearm will give you more in someways but also less in other ways. You may find that bass is better defined, if you match the arm and cartridge well, but you may feel that in other areas you loose something.

As Barry said there is nothing to stop you dding mass to the headshell but also there is an option to add mass to the bearing assembly as well. This is quite easy to do on a Nima as the bearing cup has a flat top. Might be worth experimenting a little with adding mass to the Nima as it might give you some idea of which direction to go in with he new purchase.

Nima is a good arm, but better suited I think to a non suspension, or stiff suspension TT, the PT1 is very wobbly re suspension.

[Spectral Morn]

My thought is SME 309 or 4, which back in the day were the go to choices.

[hifi_dave]

Nima is a good arm, but better suited I think to a non suspension, or stiff suspension TT, the PT1 is very wobbly re suspension.

Having recently set up a couple of Nima arms on LP12 turntables with expensive MCs, I agree wholeheartedly. Like a load of jelly on a bouncy bed - no fun at all.

[AJSki2fly]

My thought is SME 309 or 4, which back in the day were the go to choices.

+1 and as my very experienced dealer friend said SME 4 works best on PT with Koetsu Red

[guero]

I've just read of all the advice and suggestions a number of you have made regarding possible replacements for the Nima. Thanks for taking the time to post your thoughts, I appreciate your help.
I suppose now I need to narrow the field somewhat and try to listen to some of these arms. I can have arm boards fabricated by Charles at Truepoint so I'm not limited to one particular geometry such as Rega. I can't consider any arm over stock 9-10 inch length. Shame I missed the Audionote that was for sale but I might have been tempted to buy it without enough thought.
I'm going to try and post a picture of my deck a bit later- just to see how it's done and show off my old PT1.

[guero]

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/150x100q90/924/y8PSN1.jpg (https://imageshack.com/i/poy8PSN1j)

[guero]

That seems to have worked- not free anymore though!