Rega RB250 Tonearm Upgrade Options/Opinions

Ha, true Steve! At least Rega did the casting of the arm tube well (just kidding Rega lovers ;-). I went to the Santa Clara, CA shop of Groovetracer to order my counterweight, which is a really cool design. But if you get every after-market Rega part, you end up spending enough to have bought an imo better table/arm from the outset. A good way to get a fully-modified Rega is from someone who has already done it all. Let him take the loss.

@bdp24 ...

A whole industry evolved out of the owners of Rega RB300 arms

A whole industry eveloved out of every part Rega used in their Turntables!
- platters, subplatters, bearing, arms, balance weights, plinths, belts, single wire harness - just to name a few :-)

But I have not seen replacement lids or on/off switches :-)

Regards - Steve

A whole industry evolved out of the owners of Rega RB300 arms needing the junk stock wire (with numerous solder joints) replaced with high quality stuff. Brooks Berdan rewired a lot of them with Cardas cartridge tags and internal copper wire, terminated on George's RCA jack block, but I had him do mine to RCA plugs. Soldering of only the cartridge tags and RCA plugs to the wire!

The best - and cheapest - improvement is to rewire the Arm cabling (inside).

Great @butzchan, you can afford even the new, best Audiomods arm. Jeff is a master machinist, making every single part of his arm. He uses silicon ball bearings (okay, Jeff doesn't make them ;-), his unique counterweight allows for variable amounts of moving mass (to suit the compliance of your cartridge), he installs stiffening braces inside his arm tubes (to reduce resonance), offers copper or silver internal wire, and, as @williwonka stated, terminates the wire with the excellent KLEI RCA plugs. You can get his arms with a single, uninterrupted (no solder joints) run of wire from cartridge tags to RCA plugs, the best way to do it.

@bdp24 , My budget limit is $1600. I am liking Audiomods more and more! 

@butzchan, you don't mention a budget, but Jeff at Audiomods has a new model he recently announced. It is the same in most regards as his previous models (excellent arms), but incorporates his own carbon fiber wand in place of the Rega tube (the only part of his arms not of his own design and manufacture). All his arms are under a grand, and are great values. Details available on the Audiomods website.

Thank you everyone for the supplied information! I have been doing a lot of reading!

Anyone have any experience with the Moth OEM2000?

Don't know about your pivot to spindle distance, but if there's an Origin Live within budget you might want to check it out. Been real pleased with my Conqueror for many years now. Massively better than the Graham 2.0 it replaced. Whole other realm, and its not like the Graham was ever a slacker.

@butzchan - I upgraded from an RB250 to the Autiomods Classic II with the micro VTA and one piece silver litz cable with the beadblast finish and the results were amazing!

Get the KLE Innovations Absolute Harmony RCA’s installed - well worth the money (see below)

Jeff, at audiomods, is extremely good at what he does and his product is first class and extyremely well designed and built. He may even "tailor" the arm specifically to your turntable, a service he applies to most turntable/arm combos.

I use it with a Denon DL103 with an O.C. Contact Line stylus on a Ruby cantilever modified by Soundsmith.

My current phono stage is a Simaudio Moon LP5.3RS

It’s the single best upgrade I have made to my TT...
http://image99.net/blog/files/category-audiomods-tonearm.html
http://image99.net/blog/files/category-turntable-mod0027s.html
http://image99.net/blog/files/a8494e8645dea3d750d109f819103099-61.html

I have heard the Series Five with a Van den Hul Frog cartridge (repaied by Soundsmith) and it sounded very similar.

The sound is very articulate, balanced, crystal clear with superb image.

Hope that helps - Steve

Look for a used Vector. They come up for sale occasionally. It is exponentially better than the Rega. I made that upgrade and it transformed my system. I had a Vector 3

I have heard good things about the Audiomods tonearm, but have not heard one.

Thank you jperry. The Basis Vector 4 looks amazing, but is out of my price range. The Graham Robin looks good. There are so many Rega variations out there!

Basis Vector can replace a Rega, but you need a larger mounting hole. I think the Graham Robin is also a drop in replacement.