VPI JMW Memorial Tonearm

The Aries/JMW combo is an outstanding choice in the upper-mid price range. The JMW arms are considered "high mass". A low-to-medium compliance cartridge will prove a better match than a high-compliance model.

A good match is what I'm looking for. My preamp cannot handle a MC cartridge, thus my look at the Grados. But I still lack the number to plug into my resonance formula. What would you suggest as a compatible cartridge?

I'm not sufficiently familiar with the JMW to comment on its effective mass, nor can I find any tech data. However, if you will go to Web site address I've listed below, there is a discussion thread on exactly your topic: http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/vinyl/messages/28185.html Hope this helps.

Hi, Larry: I think I have an answer to your question. After my last post, I had the nagging feeling that I had read something recently about the JMW arm, so I looked through some recent issues of Stereophile, TAS, and Listener. I found the article I wanted - a review by Art Dudley in the May/June issue of Listener of the Aries / JMW arm combo. According to Dudley's article, the effective mass of the JMW-10 is 11 grams. Since Dudley has been a personal friend of Harry Weisfeld and his wife Sheila for a number of years, it is safe to assume that Dudley has his facts straight. Hope this helps you. I would like to request some info from you in return: what is the resonance computation formula that you use?

Scott, I'm using the resonance formula from "How To Set Up and Tune Your Turntable and Tonearm" by George Merrill of "Underground Sound". The formula is: F = 1/(2*Pi*sqrt(compliance*total_mass)) In my case: compliance = 20, total_mass = 11 (tonearm) + 6 (cartridge) = 17 sqrt(compliance*total_mass) = sqrt(20*17) = 18.44 Pi = 3.14159265... Thus: 1/(2*(3.14159265)*(18.44)) = 1/115.86 = 0.00863 kHz or 8.63 Hz for the resonant frequency. According to the book, the range from 8Hz to 16Hz is good, but 11Hz is best. --Larry

I run a Grado Sonata (list: $500) on my Aries / JMW 10.5 and there is absolutely no mismatch (arm mass is not an issue). The combo works wonderfully and is sold a lot by Lyric in NYC. I note that one of my closest friends runs a Van den hul Frog on his TNT / JMW 10 set up. Real care must be exercised with arm mass and that cartridge, but his set up works / sounds fantastic (although George Stanwick, the U.S. distributor of Vdh, cautions that the tone arm mass of the JMW 10 is at the outer limit of what the Frog can jump (couldn't resist). But your question pertains to a Grado. P.S. I first ran the Grado on a JMW 10, and it worked great as well.