Just recently acquired a PD-444, the ability of mounting 2 tonearms and looked in good condition it made it hard to pass by, still waiting for it to be delivered. I’ve got an EPA-100 mk2
Luis, unfortunately you can’t mount EPA-100 mkII on Luxman "armboard", it’s impossible, required hole for the tonearm base is too big (actually it’s huge). I have EPA-100 mkII too.
Any Technics tonearm with that huge base (like EPA-500) is not compatible with Luxman base.
But earlier EPA-100 (not mk2) is fine for Luxman.
As a second tonearm for the PD-444 what should I look for? MA-505LS? FR-64s or 66s? apparently the SAEC’s and Victors are not that good as the FR and MA per previous comments. Just trying to look for a versatile tonearm different than the EPA-100? Note I also have a 1200mk5 Technics with medium mass tonearm.
Thank you in advance for your answers, I’m excited with learning and rediscovering vinyl.
Actually Victor are perfect, but you need a NOS sample, not broken junk. I think Victor 7045 and 7082 are excellent tonearms for very reasonable price, but again, you need to find absolutely perfect sample.
Fidelity-Research are fine, I have 64fx with n60 and 64s with b60. But I’m using them only with low compliance cartridges.
Another arm is Lustre GST-801 which I have on my PD-444 for a long time, great tonearm for the money (with great features, this is a nice arm for many cartridges), much more reasonable priced than Fidelity-Research.
P.S. Welcome to the Luxman club!
For your PD-444 try SAEC SS-300 mat, Micro Seiki CU-180, or modern Sakura System's THE MAT.