Schroeder model 2 or Morch DP6?

Hello Slowhand,

When Peter (Redpoint) and I were together, we acquired two DP-6's - with a total of 3 arm wands between us. I used a 9" Precision Red wand exclusively, as I was using Benz cartridges at the time.

Both Peter and I had quite a bit of trouble getting predictable anti-skate behavior with the arm. I've heard this from other individuals whose opinion I respect.

It appeared to me as if the coil spring assembly was hanging up.

I disassembled and cleaned the assembly. This did not improve matters. I always felt as if I was trying to keep a British sports car running when I had this arm in my system.

Now, Peter is a tortured soul when it comes to tonearms. He decided to pick up yet another arm wand for his Moerch - a 12" one.

Peter told me that this transformed the tonearm over a range of cartridges. We don't know what to make of this, because from an effective mass perspective, there was no change.

I have been around enough different tonearms to not buy into the argument of the inherent superiority of longer tonearms. Tracing distortion is only one consideration. Arm tube resonance (and the difficulty in controlling it in a longer wand while maintaining effective mass), bearing loading, etc. also need to be considered.

Perhaps these attributes work in favor of 12" as far as the Moerch is concerned. I can't say ...

I consider the DP-6 (with a 9" wand) to have fairly nice performance at its price point, but when I picked up a used Micro Seiki MA-505 Mk III at a fraction of the Moerch's used selling price, I saw no reason to keep the Moerch. I had learned all that I cared to about the tonearm.

Note that these comments apply only to the DP-6 (in its 9" configuration), and not to the UP-4 tonearm. I think that the UP-4 is an absolutely great buy at it's price point. The DP-6 faces stronger competition, however.

I suppose the main consideration is whether you are purchasing the arm new or used. For a kilobuck or so, the DP-6 is a fairly nice tonearm, although I prefer my Micro MA-505 Mk III to it. Certainly, hell will freeze over before you find a Schröder Model-2 on the used market, so you are looking at a more significant outlay for this arm.

Cheers,
Thom

Hi Larry, all ...

Firstly, to those who don't know me, please take my comments with a grain of salt. As a Schröder dealer, I might be just a wee bit biased. Any comparson between the Schröder Model-2 and a Moerch DP-6 would be based on my 2 year old memory of the DP-6 - the last time I had one in my system.

This weekend I got to play with a DP-6.

I was recruited by a local customer to play cartridge mechanic - swapping a ZYX Airy-3 and a Benz LP into his Galibier / DP-6 rig. The DP-6 had a 9" red-dot standard arm wand (6 gm effective mass, non-precision headshell).

For the ZYX, we added 5.1 grams to the headshell (a nickel affixed with Blu-tack). In retrospect, we should have increased the mass of the red-dot for the Benz too, since the red-dot wand has an effective mass of only 6 grams.

I noticed one change in the current generation of DP-6 tonearms. The new DP-6 appears to be wired with sliver. Since I was listening in an unfamiliar system, I hesitate to speculate about significance of this change, but my guess is that the wire has effected an improvement. Treat this as speculation and nothing more.

The wiring change may tip the sonic balance in favor of the Moerch (over my $400 Micro Seiki MA-505 Mk III). It's difficult to say. Previously, I considered the two arms to be too close to call.

One thing may have been lost in my previous comments. The Moerch DP-6 is a very natural sounding tonearm. In this respect, it finds itself in very select company - alongside the Triplanar and Micro Seiki tonearms. As natural sounding as any Schröder? Not on your life, but nothing I've heard to date is as natural sounding.

Having said that, these arms (Triplanar, Moerch, Micro Seiki) have their own virtues and one could easily prefer them to a Schröder. Raul can comment further on other arms, like the vintage SME's and the great Japanese tonearms, and I'd take what he has to say very seriously.

Some gripes I have about the Moerch include but are not limited to the anti-skate adjustment.

Azimuth adjustment in the arm is a great feature, but why Moerch didn't drill an access hole into the top of the arm wand disk for easier azimuth adjustment is beyond me. I suspect that very few Moerch owners even play with the azimuth adjustment due to how inconvenient it is to access the Allen screw. This is a pity.

I also wish that Moerch made all of the arm wands with the precision headshell and eliminated the standard headshell versions..

Realize that no product is perfect. I'm certain that there are an equal number of individuals who take issue with the ergonomics of the Schröder Model-2 for example.

Gripes and all, you can do a lot worse than owning a DP-6.

One exercise I'd like to carry out in the next few months is to put it up against the Hadcocks. This will be a very, very interesting exercise !

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier