Tonearm advice for a Spacedeck and Benz Ebony LP


I'm looking to upgrade my Spacearm tonearm on my Nottingham Spacedeck(2 yrs old) to match the Benz Ebony LP cartridge I recently upgraded from a Benz L2. I've been recommended tonearms from Hadcock, Origin Live, SME, Ace Spacearm, and Graham but nobody has had experience with the combination I'm using. Looking for used but will consider new also. The equipment I'm using is:

Nottingham Spacedeck with Spacearm and Benz Ebony LP
K&K Audio SE Phonostage
Pass Labs Aleph 2 Monoblocks
Pass Labs Aleph P Preamplifier
Audio Physics Virgo II Speakers
Cardas Golden Reference and Golden Cross Cables
Any help is appreciated
johnmilner
len gregory aka the cartridge man uses a notts analogue tt
and has developed a new parallel tracker at 1500ukpounds
worth investigating
best regards
uktel
I currently run a Benz Ebony LP in a newly acquired Moerch DP-6 - another arm you should have in your shortlist. I was in the same position as you a couple of weeks ago, wanting to upgrade from, in my case, an origin live/incognito modified RB250 arm running on a Scheu/Eurolab premier. I did a lot of research on the matter, and it seems there are a few tried and tested combinations that work well for this cart..

What area of your sound are you trying to improve on? This will have a big impact on which way you'll go..

Pivoted and unipivot arms, like the Graham, Hadcock, and Moerch will tend towards a more 'relaxed' sound. The benz is on the heavy side for these, but is moderately compliant, so the match can give good results. OTOH, they may be less suited to running stiffer mc carts you may want to run in the future, such as denon dl-103, or koestu/zyx etc.. They will, however, be an excellent match for MM carts, Van den Huls, or high-end grados/Music maker 3 and the like..

The gimballed bearing arms, like the SME, origin live, triplanar etc will all be an excellent match as well, particularly if you plan to use other stiffer mc carts at any point. Theoretically tending towards a more precise 'mechanical' sound. That being said, the SME match with the benz is supposed to be an excellent one from all reports. By extension, the origin live should be too, but watch the resonant frequency.. at 14.5 grams effects mass of the OLs, you are running down to a hair over 8Hz..a bit low for a suspended table. The triplanar is also supposed to be a superb match with the benz..

In my experience with the moerch, i am just getting it dialled in now, and starting to achieve some excellent results.. Unfortunately, I was not able to compare with any other tonearms except the OL RB250 i upgraded from. In this case, there is no comparison. The rega could not handle the energy the cart was throwing into the arm. The match exaggerated sibilants and threw horrible aharmonic distortion over everything. On the moerch, everything (especially the treble) was ten times clearer - louder even, dynamics explosive, the bass is deep, tight and subterraean, so yes, I am happy. Is it better than a SME? I don't know.

One thing I CAN tell you is that with this cart, you have to be prepared to spend a LOT of time dialing it in just right.. Don't expect the cart to shine as soon as it is dropped into the new arm.. MINUTE changes in antiskating, azimuth, and VTF will make the world of difference. And don't forget to run the tonearm cables in either! I am doing this by removing the cart and ruuning from a cd player into the cart clips, down through the arm, straight into a line-level preamp input. Those tiny MC voltages are not enough to take the edge of (especially silver) cables this side of the next century..
I'm using the Benz Ebony in a VPI Signature (Valhalla) tonearm and am very pleased. ...just as an aside....every time I got rid of a Cardas product, the sound improved.