Ikeda 407 Tone Arms - New or Vintage

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).

Hi Raul,

I ended up buying a Glanz MH 1200S.  I am using it with several Miyajima Infinity Cartridges.  I am swapping headshells and 0.7 mil, 1.0 mil, and 3.0 mil for different types of mono records.  Lately, I am also experimenting with using different null points to optimize for 7 inch / 10 inch records (a seperate cartridge / headshell for that).  I think the Glanz was a step up from my FR-64s.  In fact, I might even buy another Glanz for my Ortofon SPU collection.  I have not bought the FM 123 yet, but it remains very high on my list of most wanted upgrades.  I'm not sure if FM would work well in a tube system, such as my Shindo / Devore set up in my living room.  I bought a Thomas Mayer Mono Variable EQ Phono stage and absolutely love it with the Shindo system.  I think the FM will work with my Accuphase / Tannoy Legacy Eaton media room set up.  I like the Eaton, but i'm thinking about upgrading, as I might move to a place with a larger room.  So, FM on hold until I figure out my new media room set up.  Some tonearms seem a bit tough to make work will with the TD-124 (e.g., Ortofon RS-309D / Glanz) owing to low height of the platter, but I was able to mount the FR-64s and get the correct height for my cartridge.  I'd need to spend more time with it to post any worthwhile feedback.  For what it's worth, my first impression is that I liked the FR-64s better on my Garrard 301 which allowed for use of the B60, but the FR-64 still sounded pretty good.  Also, I am upgrading my Devore's to the O/20...waiting for it to be built...so that's where I invested my funds / efforts lately....

All the best,

Mark

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.

Dear @mcmprov  :  Look, Japan is the bigger tube market on audiophiles and at the same time FM Acoustics has it's bigger market rigth in Japan.

FM Acoustics is out of question on its design or quality levels. If any electronics partner does not mates well with FM then the problem ( you can be sure. ) belongs to the partner never to FM.

R.