SL1200 upgrade tonearm or replace cartridge?

Vic which tonearm were you running on sl1200?

Johnny I had already seen that review, thank you. I think i read it in one of your others posts. It is one of the things motivating me to go along this route.

In the passed I had tried the Ortofon 2M blue, it wasn't bad for the money but the Benz Glider was a big improvement and I am not going back to a MM cartridge. Although the AT150 has always intrigued me. As for the SME M2, I do not know how much better it could be from the stock tonearm but by the looks of it the difference would appear marginal. If I am going to upgrade I want it to make a big improvements. Finally if I up grade the arm and decide thereafter to upgrade the turntable I will have a high quality arm on which to build.

The trans-fi tonearm definitely looks amazing, it would be fun to try. But it also looks very complex and that something I am not ready to own.

Vic, I think the "life being sucked out" effect you describe is most likely due to the stock tonearm more than the table as whole.

As for the speed searching, this is not my experience. My 1200 is absolutely stable, quartz locked at the correct speed. Maybe if you add additional weight to the platter, with copper mats and heavy clamps, such as TTW, then you may run into some torque issues.

Dave as I mentioned above, I find the at150mlx intriguing but I am totally satisfied with Benz Glider homc. I have not intention of going back MM at this time. If I did, I would probably like to try a Grace f9 ruby first.

I would like to redirect this thread back to my original questions.

1- Should I replace my cartridge which is nearing (but not yet there) it's end of useful life before upgrading my tonearm? The logic, is that new cartridge may provide sufficient improvement in performance thus putting into questions the need for a tonearm upgrade. However, a having a new cartridge may limit my selection of compatible tone arms, thus putting off the replacement cartridge until I have upgraded the tonearm would allow me full flexibility to change to an optimal cartridge for the tonearm selected. What came first the chicken or the egg?

2- I am leaning towards an SME arm, who has experience with these arm on the sl1200, at which would be best 309, IV or V, and are there any to avoid? Yes I realize that conventional wisdom would suggest that these arm may be overkill for the table.

Has anyone tried a VPI tonearm, such as a JMW 9t on a SL1200?

I kind of share zenblasters view why put money and effort into something that is fundamental flawed.

Johnny I've tried the Teflon wrap, the improvement was marginal at best.

Vegasears: thanks for the links I had already seen the sound-hifi one, but the art of sound forum had some interesting threads. My favourite was a link to AudioAsylum that pictures of re-plinthed sl-12000 with two arms.

See link: http://db.audioasylum.com/cgi/m.mpl?forum=vinyl&n=816478&highlight=technics+plinth+powermatic&r=

Johnny: You could be right about the system dependence, my phono stages is AR-SP16. I have wrapped the collar ring as it always seemed to me the most questionable point in the arm.

Johnny it's nice to finally see pics of your TT and all it's upgrades. Looks great, I bet it sounds great too!

On a side note, earlier this week two tubes of my phono section died. Two Psvane 12ax7s that were less than 2 years old. Needless to say I am totally Pvissed! I replaced them with some EH tubes. Now the system is really sounding much better and the tubes still need some break in time.

So maybe my itch to upgrade was caused by the dying tubes! Then again maybe not.

Since i began researching my options in more depth, I am starting to like the idea of simply changing the arm wand, as shown in one of the links posted by Vegasears.

I figure the worst that can happen is that I scrap the stock arm. Then I will be forced to upgrade! And I may learn something in the process.

One other factor is that I just heard that Benz has stopped producing cartridges, this maybe my last chance to get a new Glider. Needledoctor has removed prices from their site and replaced them with a note "please call for prices and availability".

Can I mount a ten inch arm on the technics SL1200? The stock arm is 230 mm (9").

Yes really! I can't speak for all 1200s but mine are definitely not rough sounding. Mine are early MK2 units likely from the late 70s or early 80s, the construction differs from later units I have seen. They are more robust.

In the end I modded the original arm. I replaced the S arm with a carbon fibre straight tube. The results is quite good. I had some friends over a few days ago listening and they were very impressed with the result. you can check my system for some pics.

As to the comment regarding upgrading the phono stage and cartridge. I had already done this, I am using, ARC SP16, with HO Benz Glider and this has been one of the most beneficial upgrades for my system.

I am still interested in trying the SME arm but there is currently no budget for it.