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 downunder

I have the AS309-S and I had the same questions. Ortofon were happy to give an explanation - see below.

I ended up using the alignment gauge that came with the tonearm, as it was a bit difficult to get Mint to make one. Now that I have re-read this, I might try my SPU with pivot to spindle of 314mm.
Anyway, the arm sounds great and clearly more than one way to align cartridges with this or any tonearm.

BTW, I use Mint tractor for my other tonearms.


There are two schools of thought concerning this arm – the figures that are suggested by Ortofon Japan ’s engineers, versus the suggestions by our chief of cartridge engineering (in Denmark ).

The recommendation from the Japanese engineers is:
Mounting distance = 311mm
Eff. Armlength = 326mm
which gives overhang 15mm)
Cartridge parallel to headset, i.e. offset angle like the arm itself (19 deg)

Denmark’s recommendation is:
Mounting dist = 316,6mm
Eff. Armlength = 329mm
Off.set. angle = 16.5 deg

Denmark’s rec. gives Baerwald alignment.
As you see the cartridge need a slight twist with respect to headshell.The stated eff. armlength is easily achieved with Ortofon headshells and most cartridges.

Using a SPU (in G-housing) gives an eff armlength of 329mm
Off.set angle is of course determined by the arm itself, i.e. 19 deg.
A mounting distance of 314mm will then give the best result.

Best wishes,

Louis @ Ortofon
After my message, I changed the pivot to spindle distance from 311mm to 314mm for my SPU Royal. So effective length is now 329mm.

On my SPU, I prefer the sound of the 329mm effective length. Sounds more pure and clearer. I am not going back to the Japanese 326mm for SPU.

I will next try my technics EPC100C mk4 at effective length 320mm. This will be interesting.

cheers