Tone arm info for novice

[MisterMoseley]

I think of it the following way - the source of the music is from the stylus bumping around in the groove inducing a tiny current in the coils in the cartridge. Tiny aberrations in the physical contact between the two will lead to audible effects when the signal is amplified downstream.

The key purpose of the tonearm is to make this contact between the two as perfect as possible (on the two contact points, one each for left and right channel) and all the complex engineering you see in more expensive tonearms is supposed to make this as good as possible.

The wiring that has been mentioned is the other part of the chain, but that can always be changed if required (eg silver litz might match the tonal quality of some cartridges better than say straight OFC copper).

There are other factors at play such as matching the arm to the turntable and cartridge (eg high Vs low compliance cartridges tend to work better with low and high mass arms - hope I've got that right!). So the best engineered arm is not always the best solution if you've already chosen a cartridge or TT. They are a complete system and should be chosen to match.

Then you've got the phono stage to think of (and head amp or step up transformers if it's a MC cartridge) but that's a whole other question...

Thank you Lawrence for explaining this so clearly.
I appreciate your help and I feel that I’m ending the day somewhat wiser than I was when it started.
Stuart

[Lurch]

Hi John
I realise that for the money I can justify spending, I’m either going to have to go for entry level new Project/Rega with peace of mind warranty or higher quality used TT without any support/guarantee if anything goes wrong.
Regards
Stuart

Seriously, with 50ish records I would grab the Revolver from Glenb, it's better than the deck you sold but not stupidly so.
As for warranty, why do you need one? there's nothing to go wrong as the deck is very basic, an annual bearing clean and re-oil (3 or 4 drops) and a new belt maybe every 5 years. For £100 its a stone cold bargain and will be all the tt you'll ever need.

Sent from my I3312 using Tapatalk

[MisterMoseley]

Seriously, with 50ish records I would grab the Revolver from Glenb, it's better than the deck you sold but not stupidly so.
As for warranty, why do you need one? there's nothing to go wrong as the deck is very basic, an annual bearing clean and re-oil (3 or 4 drops) and a new belt maybe every 5 years. For £100 its a stone cold bargain and will be all the tt you'll ever need.

Sent from my I3312 using Tapatalk

Thanks again John. I appreciate the advice.
Looks as though it’s been sold now.
What I’m realising, though, is that there are numerous used turntables from makers other than Rega, Project, etc, whose names I have never heard before (See Revolver, Systemdek).
The key is knowing what I’m buying and not delaying when I see something I like.
Also, I’m almost certainly ‘better off’ buying from here, the WAM or PFM, rather than running the gauntlet of other, well known sites.
Stuart

[guy]

I think "tone arm" is an apt name - different arms can sound very different, I was gobsmacked by the change in sound when I went from a Linn Basik+ to an Ittock many years ago.
I don't think it is entirely down to different wiring in arms."Rattles" in the bearings, resonances in the tube and head shell, effective mass, position of counter weight - so many different contributions from parts of the assembly.