what tonearm for sota/shelter 501 ?

I'm not directly familiar with the Shelter cartridge, but i'm assuming that it would work better with a medium mass arm than that of a low mass design. As such, your AQ arm was probably not a bad match. Twl can probably be of far greater help that i am as he's quite familiar with that specfic cartridge. Sean
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I am using an Origin Live Silver Tonearm with my Shelter 501, and it is a great match. The OL arm is alot like the Shelter, in that they are both really great values for the money.
I personally think that there is no arm under $1k that can touch it. There aren't really many arms under $3k that can.

TWL is probably right about his assesment. For another opinion I use the Sota Star Sapphire with a Rega RB 900 and the Benz Glider. The Shelter is arguably a better cartridge, but in many respects I think they are similar. The setup I have has allowed for many happy hours of listening. For what it's worth...

The Graham Robin. Great match with the Shelter.

Twl: What is the compliance and weight of the Shelter 501 ? Sean
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Sean, the Shelter 501 weighs 8 grams, and the compliance is 9cu. Shelter cartridges are made in Japan, by Mr.Ozawa, who used to work for Fidelity Research cartridges, back in the golden days of analog. Even in those days, FR was considered an alternative to Koetsu. Now Mr. Ozawa has moved on to form his own cartridge company called Shelter. Of course the other key player, Mr. Ikeda, has his own company too, but is going in other directions.

Bingo...Star Saphire owner here as well and used the Origin Live Moded Rega 300(excellent) and currently use the OL1 with a Grado Sonata.Fantastic bang for the buck and you'd be hard pressed to beat it without spending a fortune.