Refurbish Fidelity Research Tonearms

@syntax

He also offers the option for direct wiring …. Hm….is it blasphemy to think about it?

That is an intersting question.

I had 2 FR64S one silver wired, one copper wired. I sold off the copper version - it was not in the same league in terms of precision and transparency as the silver wired version.

What I have found is that it can be useful, if you are changing cartridges from time to time, to be able to change the eletrical parameters of the phono cable, even for moving coil.
Example, I primarily use MIT for phono - I make my own from the original verilay wound inner cable used in the 330 as a building block. Now in some instances I can get a sgnificant improvement using a "shotgun" version. I also have to hand the MIT Oracle Phono Interconnect as a reference.
MIT is very capacitive and there is an argument for using a capacitive block for MC cartridges - Manley use to use it in their preamp.
Used correctly can yield improvements in timing and coherency which is why I hear significant differences even with MC’s with different constructs.

For moving magnet cartridges, I use a ultra low capacitance Audiplan silver cable, from the 80’s which was never available commercially -$2k per metre in 1985.

So I have had to make up multiple phono cables with DIN connectors.
If the FR 64S had internal wiring running out to a pair of RCA phono then the ability to change cables would be much easier.

The other consideration is how long a cable do you need to get to the phono stage. This is important because the longer the distance, then the more the cable will affect the sound. All cables lose - they never win - it is a matter of how much you lose and at what cost ( transparency, timing etc ).

Ikeda himself was a fan of "mixing cables" to achieve the sound he liked - he use to suggest that if your arm is silver wired, then use a copper based phono cable.

So in my view you have 3 options
Keep DIN - means you can change phono cables with DIN
Run short run to RCA’s - makes changing phono cables easier and you can experiment without having to buy a dedicated phono cable.
Hard wire to phono plugs - I would only do this if the cable length required is relatively short, and you are confidant that the wire is so much better than anything else available

Which leads to my question for you - what wire.

For me the best wire is the Kondo fairy wire, but given the difficulty of rewiring the FR and the fragility of the Kondo it may be a risk in the long term. CARDAS is garbage. Audio Note 3 wire silver is quite good, but again fragie. I dont have any experience with the Ikeda silver wire or if it is available.

I know Audio Origami has both Kondo and Ikeda silver - he may be able to advise.

What are you thoughts on tonearm wire ?

I posted these comments on another thread for Nandric , but pertains to this thread, 

dover1,477 posts07-10-2021 12:37am

@nandric

The bearings in the FR64S used for horizontal motion of the arm are conventional roller bearings, purchaseable off the shelf to any spec. - eg Abec 7,9 etc

The issue most folk ignore is that the load on the roller bearings used for horizontal motion of the arm is sideways. If you can picture the roller bearings with a pipe on the inside and a larger pipe on the outside, one pipe spins within another.

In the tonearm application, the load is 90 degrees to the direction that the bearings are actually designed for. In other words the weight of the tonearm is pushing down on the roller bearing assembly sideways.

So over time wear is more likely as seen in the Syntax video.

Wear in the vertical motion bearings is less likely becuase they are used in a correct orientation.

If you look at the Kuzma 4Point the horizontal motion is achieved by using a unipivot single point ( as regards load ), instead of roller bearings incorrectly used. It is a much better system.

This misuse of roller bearings for horizontal motion in tonearms occurs in most tonearms, eg SME etc.

I would never use grease or oil on a precision roller bearing.

You were quite correct with regard to Ikeda preferring iron bearings, he regarded jewelled bearings ( synthetic jewels in most instances ) to be brittle sounding with his preferred low compliance cartridges.

With regard to the grease used on the vertical tracking force spring, sure using the right viscosity is probably important. Personally I have swiss laboratory grade grease used for watches/clocks on my shelf, dont use it. There are better.

If one wanted to live dangerously then one would remove the spring completely from the FR64 and disable the dynamic vtf adjuster and just use static balance. This would remove resonances from the FR64 inherent in the spring assembly and probably improve the sound - I have done this with other arms and heard improvements. The only caveat is that this may not be optimal for very some low compliance cartridges.

Both Jonathan Carr and I use a combination of static and dynamic balnce on the FR64. In my case I believe it reduces the resonance in the spring mechanism by having a small amount of dynamic balance, rather than any argument about static versus dynamic balance in setting vertical tracking force.

@rauliruegas 
Yes I tend to agree, I generally prefer static balance, however I dont think the FR can be 100% static unless the spring is  removed.
As I suggested on some arms in the past I have removed springs for vtf and gained a reasonable improvement in sound quality due to the removal of resonances arising from the springs.

Fin Heureuse Pigalle Paris