@lewm I'd purchased my FR64S brand new back when I also bought the Oracle Delphi Mk. III that I mounted it on. That was a great combination and, as I've mentioned, I sold it to a friend who still uses it. It sounds great in his system. As for what might be wrong with a used arm, I suppose any form of abuse could have a negative effect on it. I don't mind at all that Raul doesn't like the arm, only that he thinks those who do are somehow "wrong" and subject to his derision. It seems to me that it's really a matter of preference, so there can be be no "wrong" choice. And of course the sound of a pickup arm is highly dependent on what it is mounted on, how it is mounted and for that matter who mounted it - because it's easy to get pickup arm alignment wrong.
Raul has proclaimed earlier in this thread that he loves distortion, so that may be another explanation for why he doesn't like the FR64S, because it is a relatively neutral pickup arm ... or at least it is the way I set it up.
I notice that these arms command quite a good price on the used market. That suggests that others, too, find it to be a good pickup arm.
Like you, I think there's more than one kind of damping. I think it's not quite accurate to consider an FR64 that's properly installed on its heavy VTA base and then mounted on a serious armboard as "undamped," but I'm certainly not going to argue with Raul about that or, for that matter, anything else.
Raul has proclaimed earlier in this thread that he loves distortion, so that may be another explanation for why he doesn't like the FR64S, because it is a relatively neutral pickup arm ... or at least it is the way I set it up.
I notice that these arms command quite a good price on the used market. That suggests that others, too, find it to be a good pickup arm.
Like you, I think there's more than one kind of damping. I think it's not quite accurate to consider an FR64 that's properly installed on its heavy VTA base and then mounted on a serious armboard as "undamped," but I'm certainly not going to argue with Raul about that or, for that matter, anything else.