Morch DP-8 arm on a Helix Two turntable

@vassilis_t

I set up the Moerch DP8 for a year or so with a van den hul colibri. On the same turntable I replaced the DP8 with the Kuzma 4Point11. Whilst the DP8 was quite good - the Kuzma was far better, both with the van den hul Calibri and also a Kuzma CAR50.

I have also heard the Schroeder CB in the Dohmann which was good.

In my view I would recommend the Kuzma 4Point11 or at a lower price Kuzma 4Point9.
Alternately the Schroeder CB.

Unlike the other posters I have listened to these arms over a period of time.

 

Is the DP-8 really a unipivot? I thought only the UP-4 is a true unipivot. 

No. The DP6/8 uses a dual pivot, similar to the traditional knife edge bearings in the old SME arms except that instead of knife edges it uses points and cups. Far more stable than a unipivot.

 one of which we can call a modified unipivot (Kuzma 4-point). As for me, I am a little suspicious of tonearms that started life as unipivot designs and later incorporated  very significant crutches 

The Kuzma 4Point did not start out as a unipivot - it was a "clean sheet" design, bearings in the vertical plain are similar to the Moerch - 2 points, one in a cup, 1 in a knife block. This is quite clever becuase the armtube is removable, and when you place it on the pillar assembly all you do is locate the point in the cup on one side, and then lower the other side which automatically finds the correct position. Long term I would surmise that if the cup wears, the point will self centre, and the slot on the other side allows for any change - very clever. 

If you use audio parlance - gimbal bearings, unipivot bearings, knife edge bearings ( SME SAEC ) both these arms are more akin to knife edge bearings than the others.

The Kuzma 4Point11 has the best, easy, repeatable, fine turnable VTA adjustment of any arm I have used/set up. If you have a collection of both traditional thinner records and 180g vinyl then easily adjusted, and measureable VTA is critical in my view so that evenif you dont do VTA for each record, at least you can have 1 setting for each type of record - 180g/normal

@scar972
Hi -

I set up the DP8 12" - comments as follows
Cartridge alignment easy with removeable arm tube & you simply line the stylus tip up with the edge of the headshell if you have installed the arm at the correct pivot to stylus. I checked this on a Feickert protractor.

Tuning the eccentric lateral side weights - I found these fiddly to accurately dial in.

VTA adjuster

The vertical distance between the plane where the tonearm is mounted to the plane where the record is placed should be between 28 mm (1 1/8”) and 40 mm (1 9/16”).

Fairly course & a bit clunky - big issue I had was the platter to armboard range is narrow and on the turntable I installed the arm on I had to make a custom bronze base to get the arm into range. Without doing this the VTA adjuster has major issues.

Soundwise I did not hear the bottom end punch that I expected from the reviews. The Dynavector & FR64 have considerably more punch.
The sound was well balanced and reasonably good - on a par with a Helius Omega which was also tried.

I like that you can buy different armtubes to optimise the effective mass, I also like that you can convert the arm from 9-12" without buying a new one.

Downside of spindly armtube was that I did find it sensitive to vibration.

I think its a good arm, particularly if you get a good deal, but not at the level of Kuzma 4Point etc.

@scar972 
I think the DP6 is best bang for the buck on Moerch.

One further point, the DP8 came standard with TCI Viper arm cable which was pretty course and lacking transparency. I make my own phono cables using MIT cable - this was a vast improvement.
So if you have the standard arm cable - try upgrading this first.

@lewm 
Although they have similar principles in terms of higher lateral effective mass relative to vertical effective mass, the bass from the Dynavector 501 arm is much quicker, tighter and cleaner than the DP8 from my personal experience with both arms.

@lewm 
Fyi - the VTA adjustable collar from the 507 fits the 501.
I actually have a couple of them. You might be able to buy one from the Dynavector agent.

@scar972 

I set the Moerch up on a heavily modded Garrard 401, Blue 12" arm tube with a van den hul Colibri. The effective mass was just within the range specified by van den hul for the Colibri. The Red was too light for the Colibri. Overall sound was very good, very clean and crisp.

@scar972 

I've heard the Schick on a Garrard, I think if you put the DP6 or DP8 on instead of the Schick you would get a great improvement - more finesse, more transparent.