Ikeda 407 Tone Arms - New or Vintage

Old IKEDA have better finishing (matte grey) and stainless steel armtube.

I have an old Ikeda IT-345 and it’s great.

P.S. What I don’t like about new IKEDA is the gloss (mirror) finishing.

I wouldn't trade an old IT-345 for 64s 

My problem is that I like all of them and this is only one turntable on the image (with 66fx and 64s), Ikeda is on my Denon DP-80.  

Fidelity-Research tonearm like the FR-64fx is one of those great vintage tonearms anyone can use today, the arm can be used with high compliance cartridges with stock counterweight and with low compliance cartridges with optional W250 heavy counterweight. Dynamic tracking force is a super user friendly feature. With an additional N60 stabilizer nut the performance can be improved. This is really amazing in my opinion. You must be an annoying snob to not like the FR tonearms, especially the latest FX series from the 80’s, the FR-66fx is the best of them (predecessor of the IKEDA 407). Any FX tonearm is better than 64s, because the common problem for 64s is dried up grease in the VTF mechanism and in the arm lift. Also the base of the 64s is a joke, compared to the base of the FX series. So the 64s is much harder to find in a good condition simply because it’s older tonearm, but after replacement of the arm lift and arm base (with B60) it’s a great tonearm!

The first bunch of IKEDA tonearms also have stainless steel arm tube. Never triend the latest IKEDA, but old from the early 90’s are amazing. It’s a rock solid tonearm, I love my IT-345.

For the owners of the mighty FR-7f, FR-7fz and IKEDA cantilever-less LOMC cartridges those are the best tonearms. And this combination will give you the sound of Ikeda. People who don’t like this sound are from the parallel world for me (I wouldn’t take their thought seriously), because the FR-7f + FR-66 fx is mind blowing combination in direct comparison to a dosen of vintage and new tonearms and cartridges.

I never tried the 66s, but I believe it’s stunning.

I love the 66fx in my system and I would be happy to find an early version of the Ikeda IT-407 for a good price.

The key to using the arm with a high compliance cartridge is to get the counterweight as close to the pivot point as possible, which may require using a heavier counterweight for the higher compliance cartridge. It’s counter intuitive.

W250 black fx counterweight designed for superheavy SPU and FR-7 series (they are over 30g each), for 'normal' cartridges/headshells there are W170 counterweight and even W210 counterweight. I use my FR tonearms with FR-7f and FR-7fz xartridges exclussively (with the right counterweight). For any other cartridges FR-64fx owners can use ONLY small stock counterweight which is small and lightweight, you can;t balance 32g cartridge with such counterweight. BTW I have all types of counterweights in my collection for my FR tonearms (it took a wile to find and buy then NOS).

Audiogon provides an excellent forum for audiophiles to discuss and debate all things audio.

@dover This is why you have to discuss AUDIO, nothing else, because nobody cares about your opinion on how to sell our used/vintage gear, where and when.

Who are you to talk about it? As far as I know (as you claimed on this forum) it was you who’s been selling new high-end gear as a distributor with ridiculous distributor’s margin (before the internet era), everyone knows how big the distributor’s margin is, sometimes over 50% for all that crazy overpriced gear.

The issue is that Audiogon can only exist if funding permits, and I assume that some of their funding comes from sales commissions.

Mainly from advertising on the site and on the forum if you did not notice yet!

The forum is not even the site, they are two different platforms with two different web addresses. Forum is FREE for everyone, and this is about contribution, knowledge, community, friendship after all. No one will read a forum if there is no information, without forum audiogon market place will suffer.

There are many more powerful social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Telegram and a dozen of absolutely free audio forums everyone can read for free, communicate with people, share knowledge, pictures, videos whatever.

If you take a helicopter view, then Audiogon has saved a lot of readers a lot money through access to excellent advice. Therefore is it too much to ask for Forum members to give a little back ?

Your logic is pointless, it’s audiogon must pay back to the contributors who shared the knowledge on this forum for ages for free, this is the only reason people read this forum! But because of people like you, who act like a forum police, and complain to moderators each time your imagination goes too far, a lot of great contributors left this forum forever! They do not post anymore and I miss those people, because they were a driving force of this forum for years! Right now we have no more than 10 contributors who’s opinion is valuable. The rest is just FAQ from the strangers. If you want this forum to be dead soon with all these FAQ instead of an interesting discussions between experienced users you can do your thing (continue to make claims) and people like Nanric will leave this forum forever just like other people did, he always was one of the greatest contributors since the old days of audiogon, I enjoyed his posts before I even start posting here. You want to teach him how to sell on audiogon, just because he mentioned another German site? Do not forget that we’re in Europe, not in the USA.

I think criticism is the key to make things better, so I will add my 50 cents:

Audiogon SALES fee is fine as it will be charged after sale and no one will argue about it, but LISTING FEES are charged even if you did not sell anything, even ebay does not charge listing fee at all. The smart decision would be to change the sales fee (even higher sales fee is ok) but without charging listing fee at all (because items remains unsold). Listing fee is for shops, distributors and professional sellers (like you), they have a budget for ads and stuff. Private collectors and audio enthusiasts do not have a budget for additional fees and I want to remind you that we often have to sell something to buy something else in audio. Many years ago I listed a few things on audiogon market place, I was shocked when they charged the listing fee for unsold items (and the listing fee was so high). In my opinion they could have more sales ONLY if the listing will be free of charge and then they can charge sales fee (which is totally fine). Ebay was smarter and they canceled listing fees for all. Guess where people will list their stuff for sale ? Probably on ebay.

The difference between FR/IKEDA and some other tonearms is Dynamic VTF, so the counterweight position is always at the balance point depending only on cartridge/headshell weight.

If you have small (stock) counterweight with lightweight cartridge and heavy shell (or with heavy cartridge) then a counterweight will be far away from the tonearm pivot (just like on these images from the web):

When I use my FR-64fx with optional W250 counterweight designed for FR-7 and SPU series, this is the right position (very close to the pivot) on my tonearm:

But with my long 66fx tonearm (and its heavy counterweight) the distance between the pivot and counterweight is bigger simply because the long armtube of the 66fx is much heavier than short 64fx. Tracking force generated by spring mechanism, not by the counterweight. The counterweight is at the balance point anyway: