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Tonearm recommendation

Hello all,
Recently procured a Feickert Blackbird w/ the Jelco 12 inch tonearm.
The table is really good, and its a keeper. The Jelco is also very good, but not as good as my Fidelity Research FR66s. So the Jelco will eventually hit Ebay, and the question remains do I keep the FR66s or sell that and buy something modern in the 5-6 K range. My only point of reference is my old JMW-10 on my Aries MK1, so I don't know how the FR66s would compare to a modern arm. So I'd like to rely on the collective knowledge and experience of this group for a recommendation.

Keep the FR66s, or go modern in the 5-6K range, say a Moerch DP8 or maybe an SME.

Any and all thoughts and opinions are of course much appreciated.

Cheers,      Crazy Bill
wrm0325

Showing 2 responses by hwsworkshop

hwsworkshop
36 posts
 

Great discussion, full of passion and some interesting information.

I just built a 3D gimbaled arm with enough mass to work perfectly with the Tsar, a cartridge of such low compliance it is almost ridiculous!!  The great thing about 3D printing arms and then making them into gimbals is you get the structural rigidity of the stainless steel gimbal with ABEC 7 bearings and the absolute quiet of the 3D printed headshell and armtube.

Me, personally, I would use the FR-66 with those cartridges and be done with it.  If I was dead set on a new arm I would check out 3D printed arms, they are quieter than anything else available.

HW

hwsworkshop
36 posts
 
Look, this thread has become ridiculously long over what is in reality a very simple subject.

Having both the 66 and the Jelco (and 26 other tonearms that are not VPI's)and way more than 71 cartridges I can say that the 66 is better in so many ways it is ridiculous, that was the question.  Go out and drive a car, have some fun, the question is answered.  The real question is why would a dealer sell a table with a Jelco arm as a high end product??????????

The biggest problem I can see in this thread is customers buying stuff that a dealer recommends because you can't get it discounted.  Dealers are for the most part full of crap and would sell lettuce if they could make a living at it.  It amazes me that after 50 years of high end audio anyone believes what a dealer tells them!!!  VPI has the only table in Class A+ and three tables in Class A and yet dealers will push items you cannot get anywhere else, simply so they do not have to discount it.

Being retired I can say whatever I want to say and about whoever I want to say it, great feeling because I really know this business.  Half the turntables and arms are grossly overpriced, be careful out there, you are paying for a dealer markup, importing fees, shipping, distributor costs, and the pricing based on what they can get from some dummy with a million dollars.

Like that Jelco arm, if you knew what that cost you would puke.

Yes, I will be making the Lineage gimbaled 3D printed arm, it is amazing, and it will be reasonably priced.

The ET is one of the best arms ever made, even today it is still world class.

HW
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