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Hi all, am requesting what are best Tonearms up to $2.5k.  Looking at purchasing my final TT up to $7-8K (one day at least!!)

I notice most TT's around this price range don't have tonearms. Have venerable RB330 on my  RP3. 

Views on brands, such as Origin Live, Sorane, Pro-ject (have new range) in 9". Still a novice in this field. 

Kuzma, SME etc would be lovely, however, well over budget.

Thanks

 

Posted

The Origin Live ENCOUNTER would just fit into your budget and has a lot of the tech from the higher spec arms in its Mk4 guise. From my experience the performance to $$ stakes OL arms are hard to beat. They have a big authoritative sound, very detailed but not analytical, they have a life to them, delicate thunder often comes to mind when I am listening to rock or classical!

 

From the Encounter up they are fully adjustable above the table, VTA for instance is a simple adjustment topside, the lower spec arms require the nut underneath to be loosened for VTA adjustment. Encounter uses the dual pivot bearings, same internal & external wire, same headshell as Illustrious.

 

A fully modified Rega wont compete with an Encounter, in fact its not at Zephyr level, Swapping out the external cable on a Zephyr or Encounter with my VINYL LINK cable (that I use on all Rega rebuilds) lifts the performance of these OL arms even more.

The RB3000 is a nice arm, and really good with quality wire in it, but the Encounter in my A/B tests is still the better performer straight out of the box.

 

I have worked on a few Project arms, and do sell Project as well, the EVO range are nice but they are quite conventional in design and there are some things I dont like about them; the very small end stub on the arm tube goes against my experience with Rega end stubs, from selling the OL structural mod kits way back in the late 90's to designing and machining my own stubs, to OL's quite elaborate and solid stubs across their own arm range, and the reasons Mark Baker gives are logical and bear out in practice. The Encounter up have substantial end stub designs.

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Posted (edited)
  On 01/04/2024 at 11:50 PM, mattd2308 said:

 

Hi all, am requesting what are best Tonearms up to $2.5k.  Looking at purchasing my final TT up to $7-8K (one day at least!!)

I notice most TT's around this price range don't have tonearms. Have venerable RB330 on my  RP3. 

Views on brands, such as Origin Live, Sorane, Pro-ject (have new range) in 9". Still a novice in this field. 

Kuzma, SME etc would be lovely, however, well over budget.

Thanks

 

Expand  

 

You will  - no doubt - already know that money invested in a better turntable will return bigger sonic gains, than money invested in a better tonearm or cartridge.

With that in mind, if you are still keen to try a new tonearm - fair enough!

I recommend you find your way to DESIGN BUILD LISTEN and take a look at the WAND PLUS 9.5".

DESIGN BUILD LISTEN - Home of the WAND tonearms and turntables

 

The WAND has won numerous design awards and accolades; and is priced very competitively... Even the late lamented ART DUDLEY loved the sound of the WAND he tested!

There is a WAND OWNERS thread here on SN, full of good info too.

STEREONET WAND OWNERS THREAD

The WAND sounds incredible - and best of all, can travel with you when you eventually buy a better turntable. It will fit almost any table including REGAs, LINNs, THORENS, TECHNICS, etc.

We replaced a perfectly good LINN Ittok on our hot-rodded LP12 and were simply stunned at the sound quality improvement. At the first needle-drop, my wife and I had a weird "snap" moment - and murmured exactly the same word at the same time... "Effortless!"

Don't settle for less!

LP12MUSHROOMSANDWAND1.thumb.jpg.bdc3bc5bfc903a840f23e020a7627667.jpg

 

Edited by SONDEKNZ

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