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Thread: Interest check: Ikeda IT-407 12in tonearm, Ikeda 9TT cartridge, Ikeda headshells

  1. #1
    montesquieu Guest

    Default Interest check: Ikeda IT-407 12in tonearm, Ikeda 9TT cartridge, Ikeda headshells



    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.




















  2. #2
    Join Date: Mar 2016

    Location: Barnet, london UK

    Posts: 2,146
    I'm Adam.

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    Wow! That’s a superb accumulation of hard to find and lovingly brought together vinyl front end
    I’ve had the pleasure of many good listens to this set up and it’s stunning.


    That’s one incredible listing!
    "lack of passion is fatal"


    Vinyl: Thorens TD-124mk2 / SME-312 Aluminium 'special' / SME M2-9R / STEREO: Etsuro Urushi Cobalt / Shure M3D / Ortofon SPU A95 / Cartridge Man Music Master / Shure - SC35C (US) / SAEC C3 MC MONO: Miyajima Zero B 0.7mil mono / Miyajima Premium 1.0 / Amps & SUTs: Radford STA25 mk3 / AD Audio 'Satchmo2' pre & LCR phono / Hashimoto HM-7 SUT / ETR-MONO SUT Digital: Audio Note 4.1 (with DAC5 upgrades) DAC / Roon / Tidal Speakers: Tannoy 12" MGs' in RFC custom 'Rutland' Cabinets with RFC crossovers / Tannoy ST-100 Super Tweeters Cables: LFD Grainless phono / RFC Mercury / Duelund DCA16GA tinned copper / Kimber 12TC / SW1X Audio Design USB-SPdif / Duelund DCA20GA interconnects / SW1X Audio SPDIF Aero 6 / Mains Power Conditioner / Box Furniture rack / Audiodesk Systeme Vinyl Cleaner / a very beautiful & understanding Wife!

  3. #3
    Join Date: Feb 2013

    Location: W Lothian

    Posts: 99,005
    I'm Grant.

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    I'd keep all that stuff and buy vinyl. Looks superb condition tom
    Regards,
    Grant .... ؠ ......Don't be such a big girl's blouse

    I've said it before and I'll say it again: democracy simply-doesn't-work
    .... ..... ...... ...... ................... ..... ..... ..... ..... .....
    FIIO K7 BT, M11 PLUS, BTR7, KA5 - OPPO BDP-103D - PANASONIC UB450 - PANASONIC 4K ULTRA HD TV - PIXEL 6 - AVANTREE LR BLUETOOTH - 2* X600 SOUNDCORE - HEADPHONES INCLUDE, FIIO, NURAPHONES', FOCAL, OPPO, BOSE, CAMBRIDGE, BOWER & WILKINS, DEVIALET, MARSHALL, SONY, MITCHELL & JOHNSTON - 2*ZBOOK'S- MERCURY BD ROM, ROON, QOBUZ, TIDAL, PLEX, CYBERLINK, JRIVER - MULTI HDD'S -

    Oh my god! There's nothing wrong with the bidet is there?

    “Nothing discloses real character like the use of power. It is easy for the weak to be gentle. Most people can bear adversity. But if you wish to know what a man really is, give him power. This is the supreme test. It is the glory of Lincoln that, having almost absolute power, he never abused it, except on the side of mercy".

    “You see these dictators on their pedestals, surrounded by the bayonets of their soldiers and the truncheons of their police ... yet in their hearts there is unspoken fear. They are afraid of words and thoughts: words spoken abroad, thoughts stirring at home -- all the more powerful because forbidden -- terrify them. A little mouse of thought appears in the room, and even the mightiest potentates are thrown into panic.”

    "You don't have free will. You have the appearance of free will.”

    “There's a war out there, old friend. A world war. And it's not about who's got the most bullets. It's about who controls the information. What we see and hear, how we work, what we think... it's all about the information!”


    ***SMILE, BE HAPPY***

  4. #4
    Join Date: Jan 2009

    Location: Essex

    Posts: 31,853
    I'm openingabottleofwine.

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    Gosh Tom, you don't do things by half! I admire your sense of adventure, though your speculation that one of the new Glanz arms will eminently suit your Miyajima and SPUs are supported by others: the distributor for both cartridges also sells Glanz arms, and a fellow Member, 'Krugdoktor' uses a Glanz arm with his SPU.

    Good luck with the venture.
    Barry

  5. #5
    montesquieu Guest

    Default

    Thanks Barry! Yes the IT407 - the early one at least - is more mainstream for cartridges (with lighter headshells) than the Glanz which is a high mass beast!

    I have interest in the arm and titanium core cartridge, I would be prepared to split if someone was interested in just the Ikeda 9TT and aluminium headshell. Though still available as a package for the moment.

  6. #6
    Join Date: May 2016

    Location: Much Wenlock

    Posts: 1,522
    I'm Gary.

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    Sorry I can't help myself, every time I see this I see IKEA.

    Gary
    It is easier to seek forgiveness than to ask permission

    Rules are meant for the obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men

  7. #7
    Join Date: Oct 2010

    Location: Devizes, Wiltshire.

    Posts: 1,446
    I'm Nigel.

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    If Ikea made gear this good, I would be camped outside their local store.

    Keep them, Tom, try and demo a Glanz arm first.

    Nigel



    Quote Originally Posted by Stryder5 View Post
    Sorry I can't help myself, every time I see this I see IKEA.

    Gary

  8. #8
    Join Date: Apr 2011

    Location: London

    Posts: 4,419
    I'm Robert.

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    Looks like some serious stuf there Tom, all the same, I get that itches desire to be scratched GLWTS
    My System:
    Amplification - Sansui AU-alpha 707 DR
    Turntable - Technics SP10 MK2-Technics EPA-250 Tonearm-Yannis Tome 423.5Plus tonearm cable-Eichmann KLEI Absolute Harmony plugs.
    Ortofon Cadenza Black moving coil cartridge-Fritz Gyger S re-tip. Panzerholz plinth.

    CDP - Pioneer PD-91
    Speakers - Spendor D7 on Soundcare SuperSpikes
    QED Silver Spiral speaker cable-airloc banana plugs
    Mains - Ultra Pure silver plated un-switched socket-Missing link EPS 500 silver plated plugs-Hi-Fi Tuning gold plated silver ceramic 13 amp fuses

  9. #9
    Join Date: May 2014

    Location: Solihull

    Posts: 717
    I'm Martin.

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    Presumably you have already taken your TT and visited Hugo at Ammonite???

    Amazing gear. Good luck with your sale
    Lumley Heliosphere Audiomods 5
    Voyd Valdi AN Arm 1 V2 and Denon MC
    Audiomeca Talisman Highly Modded
    Audiomeca Kreatura &,SW1X DAC1
    Hovland HP200 MC
    Hovland Radia
    Ming Da 805 monos
    Magnum Dynalab Etude, RWA Cassabria + LCD 3
    Wilson Benesch Actors
    Cables by Cardas, Hovland G3 and Yter

  10. #10
    montesquieu Guest

    Default

    Hugo has the 9in on dem but there isn't a 12in on dem at the moment.

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