Well, I've heard the combination of linn arm and TD160 sounds better, but as I've mentioned this is a bit of a project, and like the rest of the hifi nerds here its just as much about the journey as the sound.

Still, I managed to sort out the earthing problem last night. Turned on my amp and switched on the deck, and it was so quiet I thought something must be broken. Deathly quiet. I dropped the needle and out of the darkness came the sound.

I still have an anti-skate problem, the added torsion from the tonearm rewire is causing the problem I think, so I will take it apart again tonight and see what I can do to stop the wire interferring with the arms position. I might have to bite the bullet and get some thinner wire with a ptfe skin.

Only thing to do after that is buy myself a dedicated MC phono stage to go with my DL-304, which is probably a terrible comination with the R200, but as I said, its a journey.

Nathan