FS: Fidelity Research FR64S high-mass tonearm
Hopefully this will be of interest to some of those out there with suitable decks (idlers, high mass belt drive, high torque direct drive) who want to explore the world of low-compliance cartridges.
This is my cherished FR64S that I originally ran on the TD124, before I got my Ikeda IT-345 CR-1 several years ago. At that point I swapped it with Petrat for a 12in SME M2-12R, which has since been replaced by another Ikeda, the IT-407. Peter never mounted it in the time he had it, and it made its way back to me recently in another swap. I had intended to use it for a Technics SP10 project, but I've decided not to go ahead with that, so I've decided to sell it so that it can be used, rather than subject it to more years sitting in its box.
For a 40-ish year old tonearm, it's in very nice condition. I ran it recently for a week or so and sonically it's all but indistinguishable from the Ikeda IT-345 that replaced it here - which is unsurprising really as apart from the vertical bearing design (the bearing in the later arm is doubled up, as opposed to single sided on the FR64), it's essentially the same in all important respects - Fidelity Research went bust in the late 80s and its founder, Isamu Ikeda, founded Ikeda Sound Labs to carry on the work. Indeed many of the parts such as the arm collar, retaining nut, counterweight and bias weight are interchangeable - incredible consistency over such a long period of time.
This arm carries no markings as to whether it's silver wired or not. The only thing I found, having sat in the box for several years is that the arm lift is a bit sticky at the very bottom of its travel - this can be adjusted out if you have room on your deck, otherwise it's an easy fix to renew the grease in the mechanism. No tonearm cable with this, I used one made of Audio Note AN-V cable which is now doing duty on the Ikeda arm. Any suitable 5-pin arm cable can be used.
The box is an Audio Origami one, which is how it came back from an inspection trip many years ago to J7 before I bought it.
Pricewise these have drifted into the stratosphere as a look on ebay or hifishark can confirm, but I'm asking £1100 collected including its 20g FR-3 headshell which is the correct one for the arm. I have a matching second FR-S3 headshell available to the buyer for £130 (it's not for sale otherwise) and I can add the walnut TD124 armboard shown (cut for 230mm spindle to pivot and adjustable to the 231mm I used it at) for an additional £20 to the buyer of the arm (again, not for sale otherwise).
Interestingly I had been chatting to Angus (Phonomac) about this arm, he is the only person I'm aware of out there willing to service these .. we were discussing the possibility of converting it to a 12in tonearm (bearing in mind that the FR66, 12in version of this arm, can scarcely be had now for under £5k) ... engineering genius that he is, it appears he can manufacture a longer arm wand to match any geometry. Completely reversible as the original arm wand is untouched. Food for thought and something I was seriously pondering. However I have other priorities right now and could use the cash flow.
Reply With Quote
