I'm shuffling in here with my two cents' worth on the subject of compatible tone arms. For thirty odd years Panasonic has produced a turntable that has out sold all others, or so I have been told. Its engineering has been admired from the execution to price for the product so the engineers really knew what they were doing. So why oh why has the stock arm been given such dismissive print time, Dave Price of HFW for example? Surely the aforementioned engineers would have engineered an equally sound product for the 12** tone arm albeit under a price constraint. When I first got my 1210 I used the stock arm with a Goldring 1012GX cartridge and it sounded pretty okay by me and nudging me along the upgrade journey. I then substituted the Technics head shell for a Sumiko and that brought an improvement. This leads me to the subject of having the stock arm modded as well. The arm cable would need to go, and Johnny Nielsen (J7) of Audio Origami could then do an internal rewire plus any damping required. The counter weight could also come under close scrutiny and viola, we have an arm of worth until funds permit an upgrade. My upgrade was to have my Linn Ekos transformed by J7, the works in fact and having a close lineage to the Jelco works bundles for me. I also have a Jelco 750D put prefer my Origami Akos

I'm not sure here, but I think Chris P down graded his bearing from an MN to a TS one when DC was putting the frighteners on about oil leaks, overheating etc. I questioned this at the time on the Timestep forum but my post was deleted without an explanation and on that day I left and found a home here at AoS. By all means censor if required but don't gag a valid question! From time to time I have had a look at the TS forum but have stopped doing so as I have become suspicious of any dealer/manufacturer lead forum which I now look upon as being a vehicle to push their products and stock to the fore.

I have digressed here, sorry folkies, but lets have some re-thinking on the Tekko's own stock arm and where it can be taken to?

And now I shall shuffle off and have my evening's tincture

Ron