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
Hi Bill, if you measure the resonance of the Reed 3P you will see that there is something going on under 20Hz, what has nothing to do with music.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/hdh5lef1i9e01ua/Resonanz%20EMT%20am%20Reed.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/yrmmnqz4sonay7p/AP_FresResponseReport%20-%20Lyra%20Delos%20-%203P.pdf?dl=0

I think this it is a problem with the counterweight and the magnetic bearing (swinging). I have heard Reed has reduced the problem, but don`t now more about it. Still the arm sounds really good!

I would go with the 2A, if you will buy a Reed.

The OL is very fine azimuth adjustable over the 2 pivotscrews, but the range is limited and you have to talk with Mr. Baker bevore.
I have the internal and external Silver-Hybrid cables. Baker uses thinner internal than external cables which are soldered.
http://www.originlive.com/key-information-overview.html
Here you can read a lot of information. Maybe build philosophy at first...

If you want i can make some pictures of the arm for you.

Bye, Thomas




The best place to damp the arm/cartridge is at the headshell---the rational for the Townshend Rock turntable. The trough of silicon damping fluid is viscous enough to drastically reduce the resonance exhibited by all phono systems, but not so great as to restrict arm movement. Very effective.
Raul, I can see, in theory, why static balanced would be superior, but I wonder if just a little resistance, provided by some dynamic balancing, might actually work better in practice(as advocated by the 1/3 dynamic argument).  That might provide a little resistance to big movements and such, while keeping the ringing.at an acceptable level.
Dear bdp24: Agree, at the headshell is where to start the overall cartridge/tonearm damping. Mr. Townshend was and is right.

Btw, we must avoid to use any headshell builded with raw aluminum or raw steel, are the worst ones. We need damping there as bdp24 said it.

Regards and enjoy the music,
R.
Dear bdp24: Where starts the overall damping process in the analog rig?

Just from the cartridge designers/manufacturers. For all of them the self cartridge damping is extremely important for the cartridge overall quality performance.
The cartridge has its own generated resonances from the stylus/cantilever/suspension to the cartridge body buildg choosed materials.

Cartridge suspension is not only important to damping ( all cartridges has some kind of dampers down there ) to put at minimum and out of the frequency range we listen those resonances but to improve the cartridge tracking abilities and to fine tune the cartridge sound when pass through the designer voicing process.

In the other side the cartridge body build materials are critic too for additional resonances/vibrations/distortions stay at minimum. Here too we must to stay away of non damped cartridge body, especially those that uses full aluminum or steel: stay aways of that type of cartridges. Of course that the cartridge body shape is important too.

By nature metals are prone to resonate/vibrate more than other kind of materials.

Regards and enjoy the music,
R.