Interest check: Ikeda IT-407 12in tonearm, Ikeda 9TT cartridge, Ikeda headshells
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I’m pondering scratching a particular itch … hence interest check on my current 12in tonearm and matching cartridge.
The Ikeda IT-407 was a ‘grail’ purchase for me. I got it a couple of years back from a chap called Gordon Welford, famous over a decade a go for making the Dark Matter preamps, then pretty much disappearing from the hifi world overnight. It’s an early one (early 00s I believe) and in really wonderful order. After he fettled my later (post 2011) Ikeda 9in arm, Angus (Phonemac) had a look at this one and pronounced it was in perfect nick, needing no bearing adjustment or any attention whatsoever. It’s in the brushed stainless finish which I think is nicer than the later chrome finish. It’s also lower mass (about 20g) than the post 2011 iteration of the arm and consequently suitable for a wider range of cartridges. Though it handles my low compliance Miyajimas and Ortofon SPUs beautifully in appropriately massy headshells.
It came to me without arm cable or headshell and I’m looking for the £2500 back that I paid for it. (List price on this is now £5495). It comes with the original box, outer sleeve and a full set of original templates and instructions (in Japanese). It responds well to a quality arm cable - I mainly used it with an Audio Note AN-V silver litz cable, which was too short after a recent reorganisation, at which point I sold that and used it with a Zavfino Highlands solid silver cable - very similar sound to the AN cable and a lovely match for the Ikeda arm (internal wiring of the IT-407 is also silver). However I intend to hang onto the Highlands cable. I may have a Fidelity Research arm cable in the garage which I can include if it’s needed and I can find it.
I also have a matching Ikeda 9TT cartridge, this is a really superb cartridge, designed around the Ikeda tonearm as an evolution of the previous cantilever-less design, list price £2895, I got it sold to me as unused (had reportedly been a spare) and I have played no more than 100 sides with it, having quite a stable of other stereo cartridges to play with including a Miyajima Madake, Miyajima Takumi and several Ortofon SPUs. So it’s barely run in. It’s a real top performer, and its line contact stylus gives it more a modern, up to date sound compared to the Miyajimas and SPUs I generally listen to. I’m offering this at £1250. It’s 2 ohm low 0.16mV output but works happily into any SUT normally used for 2-3 ohm Ortofon SPU. A really delightful thing that has all the holographic detail and ambience you would expect from a modern high-end cartridges, together with a punchy, musical sound. Quite addictive.
Not for sale separately from the arm or cartridge, I have two Ikeda headshells available in silver to match. One is the very latest Ikeda IS-2T headshell, with a titanium central core and the latest Ikeda silver headshell wires which sell on their own for about £50 a set. I can include this for £200 (list price £300 as supplied to me by the UK Ikeda distributor). Comes in the original box. Also (or alternatively) I have an earlier Ikeda all aluminium headshell, for £125. Both are adjustable for overhang and for azimuth, to help fine tune setup. Both are 17g including wires.
The total of that lot comes to £4075 compared to a list price of £8940, quite a bargain … not only that, most of these items are very hard to come by and only rarely come up for sale - I can’t remember any of these items being on AoS before, ever.
Interest check only for the moment as I would need to sell all of the above at the same time (and probably a couple of other cartridges, likely my SPUs) before I can go for its putative replacement, a Glanz MH124S - some trepidation as to whether the Glanz is actually any better an arm than this one (at list price it’s actually cheaper) but curiosity is getting the better of me and I’m afraid I don’t have the funds to own both simultaneously. No offers at this stage as I believe everything here is very fairly priced.
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