Used Morch DP-6 or modified Origin Live Silver?


Hello vinyl-philes,

Thanks largely to this forum we've shattered the piggy bank and will soon be the recipients of a Teres 265 + Shelter 901. Now I'm stuck for a tonearm. TWL and others warn against unipivots for this cartridge. We understand and agree, so we've come down to the two arms mentioned above. Either one will just about bust the budget, so going up in price is not viable at this time.

Morch DP-6 (used, $800 + phono cable)
- offers adjustable azimuth (does it matter?)
- offers adjustable vertical damping (does it matter?)
- horizontal damping controls stiff cartridges (right?)
- ease of setup? ease of use? reliability?

OL Silver with TWL's mods ($800 + $1.79 fishing weights)
- no adjustable azimuth (does it matter?)
- no adjustable vertical damping (does it matter?)
- TWL's HIFI mod controls stiff cartridges (right?)
- ease of setup? ease of use? reliability?

Has anyone compared the sonics of these two arms with a low compliance cartridge? Your observations would be especially welcome.
dougdeacon

Showing 2 responses by gregm

I'm familiar w/ the Morch (but not the OL; what a quandary:)) It's a very good arm and relatively easy to set up. The azimuth, angle, etc are correctly set, so no problems (unless the previous owner has been playing with this; if so, Tom, if you can convince him, could probably solve the issue magnificently...).
I used the arm with a Clearaudio Accurate & Discovery. It's on the neutral side of neutral (to coin a bad phrase), tracking is very good & resulting "speed" effect is excellent. Musical presentation is very open, mids are liquid (not harsh/ analytical) and the upper end extension obtained was at par (if not better) than with a more expensive arm. We didn't notice resonance issues and the bass was very clear and tight (maybe lacking ultimate extension?). Note that listen to classical music & use large orchestral passages to "audition" arms & cartridges.

I THINK a Morch would like the construction concept of the Teres; it felt very well in a Clearaudio TT, a big Project and a S. Yorke.
BUT, I've never used a 901. Maybe Tom can extrapolate because $800 for the Morch +cable looks like excellent value.

BTW, this is an exotic analogue rig you're setting up!
Good luck & maybe we can look forward to a review of "my new analogue rig playing Mahler 8". Cheers