Ortofon RS-309D opinions


A friend of mine offered me this arm for my TW Acoustic Raven One , I eventually 'll use it with the BenzLP

What do you think about this arm and the Benz combo

Thank in advance for opinions/suggestions

Curio
128x128curio

Showing 2 responses by david12

For the first time ever, I have used the precise combination you are asking about Curio, a moment to savor.
I used the Raven one initially with the basic Jelco arm supplied by the UK distributor. A good combination it was too. Way better then the Origin Live Resolutuion and Illustrious I was using before.
I E-mailed Thomas at TW regarding a final arm choice. He replied in detail, saying he used an Ortofon 309D on his Raven One and felt it gave 95% of the performance of the Phantom at less than half the price, his words not mine. I bought the 309D from the distributor, that he was using on his One. It was clearly a big step up from the Jelco. It is well built, tracks well and improved on all aspects of record reproduction.
At the time I was using a Zyx Airy 3, which I found frankly disappointing. Yes it was neutral, detailed and tracked well, but it was lifeless. The UK distributor of Benz was selling the LP at £500 off, at £1500. I realise this is much cheaper than the US. At that price it is a wonderful. All the detail and transparency of the Zyx, but so much more life, dynamics. I remember the first LP I listened to was Art Blakey's " Moanin", the last one I had played with the Zyx. I jumped out of my chair at the first Saxophone entry, it had so much more life, so crisp.
The LP shares duties now with a Koetsu Onyx I bought cheap and had retipped. Koetsu are not fashionable I know, but it sounds great too, with that magic Koetsu midrange. Arm cartridge compliance is'nt supposed to match with the Koetsu, it sounds fine to me.
So I say, go for a 309D, the deck and arm are the last ones I will be using.
An aside, if you ever want a retip, go to the UK company, the Expert Stylus company. They have been in the business over 20 years and provide a very good, cheap service, of high quality. Yes I know purists will say a retipped Koetsu is no longer a Koetsu, but it sounds OK to me.
I find getting the weight correct as recommended in the instructions, quite easy. Set the VTF to zero, balance the arm with the counterweight. I do agree small movements make a big difference, then fine tune uusing the VTF knob. I agree you need digital scales too, the scale is too crude for the necessary fine adjustment