Discuss The Viv Lab Rigid Arm

@chayro The intended purpose for arm shopping is to locate a candidate for my MC2000. I need to know arm mass on the Viv arm and so far I have been unable to locate that information. Sent an email to the companies official one over a week ago, never got a response. I will stand pat with my DV505 until I can get a bit more information. 

I have seen the numbers for tracking error and they are not pretty. Makes me wonder why some people report such positive experiences. Those owners used some nice associated gear. I still have difficulties correlating the math and what they report. Too expensive to take a flyer on just to know. I think I will pass. 

@senza Well I am considering it. One thing I need to find is the arm mass for the various lengths. My goal is to find an arm I can use with my Ortofon MC2000 cartridges, and while my Dynavector can do it, I am a bit uneasy about all the mass that is located in the horizontal plane. Perhaps that is not a practical issue, but my mind would be more at ease if I could find what I think is a more appropriate match. 

If I was playing more conventional mid compliance cartridges exclusively, then the Dynavector is just fine for my needs. 

My interest in the arm was as a possibility to use my MC2000 cartridge. I have never been able to get an answer of arm mass from anywhere online. I did email the company and no response. So I think i am going to end this line of pursuit. I am fine with my other tonearms and have obtained a Denon PL5 headshell for the MC2000 to be used on a Dynavector DV505. The combination works well, so that is my solution for now.

@lewm It is true I look at things from varying angles, working to understand the variables and a proper implementation. With the MC2000 a bit more so, as there are getting to be less and less of them, and because I unfortunately am responsible for one less stock one. But I will say @rauliruegas experience regarding using a boron cantilever on a damaged MC2000 is a viable option. I will also say I feel the same about you regarding the DV505, and the use of the light Denon headshell and the smaller Dynavector counterweight makes me far more comfortable running the MC2000 on a DV505. I am content with the pairing. Wish I did have a cue device and the associated cue platform, would have protected against the event that did in that first MC2000. 

I don't maintain a large collection of analog gear, I am content with my 6 cartridges, and three arms. The Dynavector allows me to run 3 casual cartridges, the boron MC2000/MC3000 II/MC5000 and that is enough for casual vinyl spinning for a long time. Truth is digital sounds really nice here and I can easily use it for casual listening also. 

Hopefully the final tidbits allows me to fine tune the set up of the BMC phono stage, which I do see as quite attainable. With that I am set with my analog rigs and am content. I feel fortunate to have nice examples of the T2000 and T5000 SUT devices, and am happily surprised how well the Esoteric phono stage functions. 

I am in a good place. 

@lewm the issue is there is not a tapered aluminum cantilever available to replace a damaged OEM one. Not through any cartridge builder that I am aware of. I wondered if the one fitted to an Ortofon Cadenza Bronze could be a possibility, but you cannot source one. 

When this first occurred I didn't touch an album for 4 or 5 months. I was really quite upset with myself. Only after I was able to contact @nandric and buy his MC2000 was all right in the world again. Then I had a reason to consider a repair of the first cartridge. This way I had an OEM version to appreciate, and still have an alternative to use for casual listening. Now if I could have found a suitable replacement I would use it in a heartbeat. But I do not know of one. 

@atmasphere With diffusion panels directly behind the speaker is it possible to shorten that 5 foot distance by a small amount? I have always considered trying planars but my listening room is moderate in size. 22'L x 16' W x 8'H. The most useful set up would only allow pull the speakers 3.5 to 4 feet off the front wall. Wonder if that is a viable option?

I did spend some time trying to see if it could be bought from a seller in Japan. So far no luck in finding a web presence for one who has it listed.