Tonearm & Cartridge Upgrade for Sota Saphire


In 1988 I purchased a Sota Saphire III turntable, with an Audioquest PT-5 arm and Grado 8M cartridge. Currently I'm using a Grado MCZ. I was thinking of upgrading to the new Audioquest PT-9+ arm with a Clearaudio Aurum Beta S cartridge. I am using a Conrad-Johnson PV5 preamp and a MV50 power amp connected to PMC FB-1 speakers with Synergistic Research cables. I also use a Bryston BP20/3B-ST amp combo. Any comments as to my upgrade choices. I love midrange accuracy. I listen to everything. Classical, blues, rock, anything acoustic. Thanks for any help.
prlscs

Showing 1 response by marakanetz

Bkonig, what kind of Graham arm is under 1k new?
Graham 2.2 doesn't fall into that category.
I also appreciate any info on specification and design of that model.

...to recommend you Graham arm after PT9 would make no sence but I have to let you know that Graham is only mid-priced to its great performance and adjustability. If you wish to stay with PT9 you should probably go with higher mass cartridges than Clearaudio. The great sonical upgrade will be modded RB250 or RB300 with either Origin Live or Incognito, but you will compromise the adjustability. I have Incognito RB300 placed on the Michell armboard and realized that it's out of azimuth. I had to use carton spacers in the armboard to screw it under the normal azimuth angle i.e. you have to be realy inventive to deal with non-adjustable arm. I was getting realy frustrated with their philosophy and minimalistic design that the TT has to be perfectly adjusted but not the tonearm.