Do I replace my tonearm

[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/thre...onearm.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.