Technics EPA-100
Denon DA-401
Luxman TA-1
Victor UA-7045
Denon DA-401
Luxman TA-1
Victor UA-7045
low mass tone arm suggestion sub $1k used
I’m adding another tone arm to my Garrard table. looking for a low mass arm 9" or 10", preferably with out the wires going through the bottom of the arm mount but not critical. I’d like to spend less then $1k used (I may stretch that for a quality used-new arm if a great deal lets say max $2k). This is not for supper critical listening I just want a low mass option for random low mass carts, I may run my older VDH MC 10 on it for example. I have a 12" Jelco 750L as my main arm but I don’t think the Jelco arms are particularly light enough for the low mass carts out there. So any suggestions used or new for that matter would be appreciated.
Showing 5 responses by chakster
thanks chakster i’ll have a look for that, another one he did was a two part on you tube were he assembles a cart all filmed through his microscope very interesting. I've checked my notes, saved link to his old interview does not work. Anyway Technics EPA-100 and EPA-500/250 tonearms definitely VdH favorites. I paid for my EPA-100 about $1200 including shipping, it was 5 years ago, probably. Upgraded to the EPA-100 mkII last year (dreams comes true). |
This my ex Luxman TA-1 lighweight tonearm for high compliance cartridges. The armwand is removable like one big headshell. This tonearm made by Micro Seiki and it’s way better than Infinity Black Widow for example. I’ve been using Luxman TA-1 with Stanton SC-100 WOS cartridges exclussively with great result. The arm is very rare, especially with its superheavy tonearm stabilizer. I must say the Denon DA-401 is also a great quality lightweight tonearm, the only limitation is its headshell which can not be replaced with any conventional headshell. It would be nice to have at least a few shells for DA-401 to swap the cartridges, but i have only one. Luckily the tonearm is NOS in the box. |
@bimasta I did use the EPA-500 for awhile, with the lightest armwand. I adored the design, less so the sound. Had some ’golden ear’ friends over — I had it set up alongside an SME 3009/II, playing identical cartridges, and all preferred the SME. I've heard that EPA-100 is better than EPA-500. The best one and the most expensive is EPA-100 mkII |