Congrats on the purchase.
Merry Christmas to Me.....New tonearm on the way
I got back into vinyl in the very early 2000's. Great time for buying records after buying into the perfect sound forever in the 80's. Sometime later I bought my Teres 340, which was a far reach in my pocket. Since i spent all the $$$ on a good TT, I had to buy a temporary tonearm. Enter the Origin Live Illustrious 3. However that was 12-14 yrs ago . The TT sounds so good that I just upgraded other parts of the system without thought to the tonearm.
I have been on the hunt for a tonearm for about 6 months now. I finally pulled the trigger on a TriPlanar Mk Vii which was just updated to the latest specs. it should be here tomorrow. Hopefully this will be the final piece of a puzzle which has taken a long time.
That said, many tweaks have been done previously to the system and more to go. My system has never sounded better. But I suspect the TriPlanar will take it up even further. But I still great respect for the OL arms
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Thanks @ozzy62 |
Good tonearm, however, if you feel that you have optimized all other aspects of your vinyl playback system, you may be slightly disappointed with the results of simply adding a new tonearm.. I'd be willing to bet that I could make some less expensive tweaks, adjustments or changes, that you'd notice the improvements more significantly. Getting vinyl playback close to perfect is a very involved set checks and balances (so to speak).. For instance (just for starters), has your existing phono equipment been set up by a professional? There are a number of seemingly small variants that can make a sizable difference. (Or do you consider yourself a professional?) And that's just to start. Secondly, what kind of record cleaning and preservation equipment do you have. A perfectly cleaned LP (assuming that it's not completely worn out) can astonish you, when you listen to the results. And that's just another small "tweak" in the playback chain. Get the picture?. I would hate to think the have concluded that "just throwing money at it" will give you results worthy of the investment.. But I'm not saying that it won't help. Good Luck |
The TriPlanar is a much better design and will sound better if you know what to listen for. Pitch over long sustained notes will be more stable. It will handle warps better. Setting up an arm once you know what you are doing is a straight forward process taking at most 30 minutes. Some audiophiles prefer to make a circus out of it, gushing over a second or two of angle. The delude themselves. |
I hear you. I agree, the OL is a fantastic arm, especially for its price point. I kick myself for passing up an Enterprise last year. But...oh well.I will let you know my assessment of the TriPlanar Please don't take for granted that everyone is a newbie. I bought my 1st record when I was 8-10 yrs old. I'm now 70. That doesn't mean I cant still learn something. But I have set up a few arms and have all the tools to do so. As to cleaning, I have a vacuum for about 20 yrs and also a ultrasonic RC. So I have those bases covered also. I'm not sure if I have those listed in my system, so you may not have access to that info |
Dear @artemus_5 : You already know that when we change the cartridge or the tonearm several " things " will be different, I can’t say better in your system because I never listened it and because I don’t know if the new tonearm just mates better to your ZYX and because I don’t know which are your MUSIC/sound priorities other that you like tubes.
When we buy a new audio item our expectations are high and I hope that after one or two months your room/system fulfill your today expectations . Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS, R.
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Smart move. In case it doesn't work out, you might not know this but Mark Baker gives full original purchase price of your old arm when buying a new one. At least he did for me. So I got to use my Conqueror almost 15 years and then bam, full money back towards the Enterprise. So you got that for a pretty nice fallback just in case. But I still have my fingers crossed for you and the TP! |
I had meant to call or email you about that. But life happened and then this arm came up for sale and I grabbed it. But that is good to know. I may have bought the Conqueror if I had known it. But it's still all good. I've never had a tonearm with this many easy adjustments. I realize that is a 2 edge sword. Back ion the 80's I put a graphic equalizer in my system. After a month of constant ocd tone adjustments, I removed it and sold it. The only thing I didn't like about the OL was it's clunky adjustments. |
They're extensively improved now. Even little things like the arm rest and lifter. They should add vernier marks on the VTA adjuster. Works fine, just have to DIY if you want that, which is not at all hard to do. My favorite is they added a little threaded counterweight that makes it a whole lot easier to fine tune VTF. Plus a lot of little visual style type improvements. You are right about the sword cutting both ways. My first arm was the Graham 2.0 and it had a slew of really awesome features, most all of which I later came to realize detract from performance at least as much as they deliver. But that was Graham. There is always room to do things better, and the devil is in the details. Feel free to call or email any time. Love to know how this works out for you. |
Iirc OL was one of the recommended arm for the Teres. Congratulations on the Enterprise. I kick myself for allowing one to slip by me last year. But finding info for that arm is also near impossible. Fwiw I now realize just how good the OL is. Yes, the Triplanar is a better arm in every area. But the Illustrious 3a is much closer in sound quality to the TP than it should be considering it's price.. It's easy to see why I kept it so long. Still, I'm glad I got the TP. More of everything and almost fun to setup. And that is the problem with the OL line. Anyway good hearing from you. Enjoy the TT. I'm sure the Enterprise is a fine arm. Would love to try one myself. |
I swore up and down I’d never buy another OL tonearm, but one presented itself at the right time, in the right configuration (DIN detachable tonearm cable), at the right price (stupid low). I’m quite pleased with it - I never thought I’d own such a nice tone arm. That TP am is super sexy! Congrats!! |
