That's a nice compact plinth.
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Take your pick. The 774 will work well with just about any cartridge, MM or MC, high compliance or low compliance, just vary the fluid damping to suit. I sometimes add a weight at the headshell with stiffer MC's, but that's only 'cos I'm too lazy to swap damping fluid or paddles.
Real sound was a concept made popular by Jeff Day over on the now defunct jeffs place blog, it can now be found here https://jeffsplace.positive-feedback...o-jeffs-place/ basically its one man's journey into using various vintage hifi, alongside tinned copper and duelund components. It's a bit obsessive but I enjoy reading it. For fun, I made up a small "real sound" system, compromising of The Garrard 301, the SME 3009 tonearm (wired with original tinned copper tonearm wiring and tonearm cable), a highly modded EAR 834 clone, and some IC's and speaker cable made up from Duelund components, and a pair of Celestion Ditton 15 speaker that I rewired with Duelund cable. It's basically a very relaxed sounding system which is great fun. I don't take it seriously but it does sound pretty good and works even better after a dose of single malt!!!
Just watch, there are 2 versions of the 774, you need this one:
https://www.vinylengine.com/images/m...ission_774.jpg
and not this one:
https://www.picclickimg.com/d/l400/p...ting-Ideal.jpg
First picture not working for me. The second image is the cheap 774LC, made by Jelco if I recall. Not worth considering really.
This is the 'proper' 774 arm. I still have three.
http://i63.tinypic.com/adgfhj.png
A few things to consider.
The 774 has a threaded 'headblock' rather than a headshell as such and only accepts cartridges that can be screwed to it from the underside. The armtube easily detaches for this, but it means cartridges with threaded holes don't fit unless the headblock is drilled through and long bolts used. My main armtube has been drilled through, although I have others that are not drilled.
It would originally have been supplied with two bias weights and three damping paddles of varying sizes. Often some are missing, substitutes can be made though.
Damping fluid can be a bit pricey, but STP (petrol) oil treatment works fine at a fraction of the cost. Fluid viscosity can be varied by mixing fine silicone oil into damping fluids.
Never overtighten the scew on the armtube clamp. You can strip the thread or break the clamp casting!
Very high compliance cartridges such as vintage ADC's, Shures, Empires and Ortofons can be used without damping.
Decca Mk.V Londons work extremely well in a damped 774, but the headblock needs drilling for these.
The 774 'sounds' different to any other arm!
Or modification for this interesting combination: a 774 with the Decca H4E.
https://theartofsound.net/forum/atta...2&d=1558260445