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Vinyl Old timers: HK's and Rabco's

Need some help here. I have seen several old HK ( Harman Kardon ) TT's that had Rabco linear trackers on them. I always assumed that this was the Rabco 8 arm. I recently saw a Rabco 8 for sale on a website and it was completely different. The arms that i remembered looked like a regular linear tracking arm with a straight tube and a headshell. The 8 as displayed on this website looked like a much wider and flatter piece of metal i.e. almost like a piece of flat-stock.

If this really is a Rabco 8, what model arm is it that i recall as being stock on the old HK tables ? Sean
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sean

Showing 1 response by harrylavo

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harrylavo
346 posts
 
The turntable that the HK was modeled after (poorly, IMO) was the Rabco ST-4.  It was a very quiet belt-drive turntable, with a thick tube "roller" and the flat tonearm that has been mentioned.  The tonearm was metal, except for the end where an adjustable "sliding plate" was used to mount the cartridge and adjust overhang.

The very complex separate Rabco arem (the "8") cost well over a thousand bucks back in the mid-70's.

I owned an ST-4, worked at HK when the Rabco copy was being developed, and contributed to the Abso!ute Sound during the time when the linear Rabco 8 and the Black Widow low mass arm were the arms of choice.  The ST-4 with the premiere ADC high compliance model at the time was a terrific combination.
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