2. vintage
  3. 170608-167278

AR XB headshell/tonearm

I have a good condition AR XB that I am refurbing and am having trouble with the headshell.  The carts that I have either don't fit the headshell or fit poorly such that they aren't alignable.  Is there a reasonable replacement headshell or am I going to have to replace the whole tonearm?  I'd prefer to not drop the coin for a whole tonearm but on the other hand this is a back burner project so I'm not opposed to sitting on it till I put aside a little money for a tonearm if that's how it's gotta be.
thank you
metal_farmer

Showing 2 responses by bdp24

bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,412 posts
 

I guess it's like the Dynaco Stereo 70. You used to be able to pick those up for a mere pittance. For what you pay for one now you can get a Music Reference RM-10, a far, far better amplifier.

bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,412 posts
 

AR Turntables are collectible? There are many thousands of them out there (I saw them listed for $50-$100 in local papers for years). I modified my AR XA by cutting out the well for the arm (it’s a piece of junk) and replacing it with a Formula 4 Unipivot. The XB is the same table but with a plastic imitation-wood covering in place of the XA’s real-wood veneer. The XB also has a metal headshell in place of the XA’s plastic.

There was a great mod-kit for the XA and XB (with a substitute floating subchassis), but if I wanted an AR I would look for an ES-1, the version of the table when it was re-introduced in the mid-80’s (I had one of those too). It’s basically the same as the XA, but with a separate arm board (the table was offered without or with an arm---a nice Jelco-sourced one. I mounted a Rega RB300 instead.).

I was okay with the ES-1 until I heard a VPI HW-19 at Brooks Berdan’s shop. Bye bye AR, hello VPI ;-) .

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