Best tonearm under $2k


I’m looking to upgrade the tonearm on my Acoustic Solid Bubinga wood TT. It came with a Rega Rb330 tonearm and although it does a pretty good job, id like to squeeze out a bit more. I just replaced the Denon 103r cart with a Soundsmith Zephyr MIMC Star cart and I don’t think I’m realizing it’s potential. I also upgraded my phono to an EAT E-glo S which I think would also benefit from an upgraded arm. My power amp is an Audion 300b Silver Night Special Edition driving Zu Soul Superfly’s. 
I’ve got one dealer steering me towards the Jelco 850s and another dealer suggesting the Sorane SA 1.2 tonearm. 
Does anyone have any listening recommendations on either of these?

Thanks,

Rick
128x128rickraymond59
Maybe consider an Origin Live Encounter—same mounting geometry as Rega and a big step up in performance. It will mate well with your MIMC Star.
rickraymond, that is correct you want a higher effective mass arm for cartridges with lower compliance. However, there is no typical 12" arm. The SME V-12 has an effective mass of 12 grams and the Kuzma 4 Point 11 16 grams. I am sure there are 12" arms with effective masses over 20 grams. The Sorane certainly looks like a high mass arm but numbers speak louder than looks. Never make assumptions. Assumptions are the mother of all f--- ups.

Mike
@dodgealum 
 I looked into the Origin Live arms and they seem to claim quite a bit about their arms and not really too concerned about arm mass vs cart compliance. They state that a very well built arm supersedes any issues with mating mass and compliance. There’s a ton of informative info on their website which is hard to take it all in. I would say though that their arms do look very well built and their methods of engineering are very convincing. I’m interested for sure but need to do some more homework. 
I'd suggest having a look at a Thomas Schick 12" or 9.6" (available in the US @ $2000 I see).  On my Nottingham it performs superbly with low compliance cartridges and should work very well indeed with both the Denon and the Soundsmith.

It's very much a "less is more" design and the fit, finish and in particular the bearings are all superb. In my opinion there isn't an arm out there which can touch it at the price and I grow ever more fond of mine as I test it with different cartridges.

The standard graphite headshell from Schick is 15g, but way too expensive @ $289, so pick up an excellent Audio-Technica AT-LH15H (or AT-LH18H) instead and you're good to go.

However, if you're loath to spend the full stated budget then the Jelco 850 is also an excellent arm and a superb value at the $795 mentioned above.  I'd personally take it over an SME 309 without a second thought, though the 309 is also a very competent arm.








@Chakster that’s strange that the table came with the Denon 103. Do these German TT manufactures know what the heck they are doing? So I should be looking at high mass arms with the low compliance cartridge?

Sometimes it is very strange indeed. Some dealers have no clue what they’re selling. The manufacturer did not designed Rega arm for Denon for sure, just because it is oldschool cartridge (not for everyone). The manufacturer instead made the arm with 11g mass for most of the modern cartridges on the market today.

Yes, heavy arm for a low compliance cartridge is rule number one, it’s the basics. Just like a light mass arm for high compliance cartridge. The reason is tonearm/cartridge resonance frequency, this is theory, practically you can actually see how the arm wobbling and shaking at the resonance frequency, to do that you just need Hi-Fi Test LP. If the resonance frequency is in the frequency range of the real music then it is a problem.

The best high mass arm is probably Fidelity-Research FR-64s, this is a heavy monster. Another one which i am using is FR-64fx and Victor UA-7082, Lustre GST-801 also great. With those arms you can change the mass with different headshell (and different counterweights) for example.

Schick "12 inch tonearm is one of the most elegant tonearms, i owned this one in the past. Schick is very simple. Very nice for low compliance cartridges, but FR, Victor, Lustre are much better.

Maybe you can find used Reed 3p "10.5 at $2k, they are very nice.
My Reed 3p "12 Cocobolo has 18g effective mass, a few more grams can be added by special screws.