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Can a modern arm beat my MAX-282?

I recently had the oportunity to pick up an Air Tight PC-1 Coda for a great price and have been very impressed with it's performance over my long-time cartridge (Shelter Harmony). It's gotten me wondering how far I can taky my vinyl rig.

I'm currently running it on my Micro Seiki MAX-282 with the J-shaped arm.

I'm now wondering whether the arm could be holding things back. The MAX has never been a popular arm, but I've always been happy with its performance. I'd love to hear what folks here think a modern arm might bring to the system.

I'd be consdering things in the range of the 4point 11, Reed 3p, SME Series V, etc. I suppose I'd also consider a 3012R or FR64, since I've never heard these arms.

I'm curious if this would just be different or if I could acheive a broad improvement. Any thoughs?

My deck is a Micro RX-5000 Air with the BA-50 base and my phono stage is an Accuphase C-47.

 

domino22

Showing 2 responses by domino22

domino22 OP
2 posts
 

@rauliruegas, nice to see another fan of the MAX arms! I've never actually understood what 'gyroscopic bearing' really means, any idea? I actually have the medium mass straight arm as well but though the J arm might match the PC-1 better. Any idea who could rewire one of these arms? It must be a difficult task with all the internal connections.

@solypsa, thanks for the input! My turntable is one component I never plan to replace. Hard to beat the simplicty and flexibilty of the RX-5000! I would be open to trying another phono stage but would need to do some reasearch. I did look at the 4pt14, but as you said, this gets into the 'very expensive' category! Do you find it's superior to the 11 even for carts that have a suitable compliance for both?

domino22 OP
2 posts
 

That's for the link Steve, will check that out! My second arm is a Trans-fi Terminator, which is also a semi-DIY solution that punches well above it's weight from the UK!

@rauliruegas, thanks for those rewire links. I'm wondering how much benefit I'd get by rewiring the arm wands without rewiring the body as well. Either way there would still be several plug connections in the signal path. As an experiment I may wire up some tonearm wire direct to a couple of RCA plugs and run that up the outside of the arm to see how much of a difference it makes.

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