rauliruegasA tonearm with removable headshell design has a lot of advantages for you and any owner ... Yes, having an interchangeable headshell on a pickup arm has its advantages. It also has disadvantages - most notably the loss of some rigidity - and that's why many of the best pickup arms have fixed headshells. As with everything in audio, there are almost always trade-offs. |
chakster... FR-64fx is lighweight tonearm, less popular than high mass FR-64s for some reason ... I've confused the two - I had the FR-64s. That was more than 20 years ago, though. I've been using an SME V since. |
rauliruegas"
many of the best pickup arms have fixed headshells ": which ones can
even or outperforms the Technics EPA100MK2 or Lustre GST 801 I never owned the Technics, so I don't have a good basis for comparison there. But I did once have a Lustre GST-801, which I think is the same as the Acos, and it is easily bettered, imo, by many arms, including the Triplanar and the SME V. And the Fidelity Research FR64fx - which I recall you not liking - walks all over the Lustre, imo. I replaced my Lustre with the FR and used it for years. (I sold it to a friend along with my Oracle turntable, and he still uses them.) |
chakster Could you explain what do you mean by "better geometry" of GST-801? ... I
also don't understand what do you mean by "not getting the
counterweight in the same plane as the record" ? Look at the
counterweight here. As with many common arms, the Lustre/Acos didn't get the counterweight on the same plane as the record, and that is shown in your link. Pickup arms such as the SME V, the Triplanar, and the Reed 3P that you use get that right. That improves tracking, and helps stabilize VTF under dynamic conditions.
My sample was not a NOS one, that's the problem, some tiny screws are missing, but nothing serious. I'd wager that it's the exceptional
Lustre/Acos sample today that doesn't have missing screws and parts. It's nice that you don't think that's serious and enjoy the performance of your arm, but I simply don't have patience for things that fall apart, especially pickup arms. Mine started to fail after just a couple of years of light use. The SME V, however, has performed in my system without incident since around '92. I do think the basic Lustre design was imaginative and showed potential, and could have been improved upon if the manufacturer had ever sought to correct its flaws. But that never happened, even as the competition kept improving. |
rauliruegas
@cleeds is one of some persons in this forum that always
stay " behind ! my posts looking how say I’m wrong. Unfortunatelly for
all them my knowledge and ignorance levels are way different from all
them, so everytime they try to " hit " only achive heavier frustration
to their normal heavy frustration.
You asked me a question, Raul, so I answered you. I promise you this: I'll never make that mistake again. I hope you have a wonderful day in your special world. |
rauliruegas The GST-801 is a engineeering tonearm lesson for any
manufacturer designer. Way way better than your V that I owned. The GST-801 suffered from a host of problems, including its compromised geometry by not getting the counterweight in the same plane as the record. That makes it a pretty poor "tonearm lesson." They also suffered from quality control problems, which is why my dealer at the time stopped selling them and why used ones are often sold in pieces, with some parts missing entirely. It's no wonder that they are no longer manufactured. According to vinylengine.com, it's the same as the Acos, so I'm not sure why you think that the two are "way different."
I ditched my Lustre probably 30 years ago and never looked back. As I mentioned, the Fidelity Research and SME put it to shame in my systems although - to be fair - those are more expensive pickup arms.
And you couldn't possibly have owned my SME V, because I bought mine new from a local dealer.
all those undamped FR are the worst design ever. Period.
That's an interesting pronouncement but coming from the same guy who (iirc) insists the Triplanar arm suffers an inherent design flaw, it doesn't mean much. In fact, such extreme pronouncements are usually meaningless. The world of audio - and especially turntables and pickup arms - isn't as simple as those like you would insist.
The Lustre GST-801 was an interesting design, though. If the manufacturer had ever updated it with better geometry, materials and QC, it might have been a contender. Now it's just an oddity. |
chakster ... the counterweight on the FR-64 you prefered over the Lustre 801 is also not on the same level as record. Actually all classic tonearms have their counterweight not on the same level as record. Do you think they are all bad for this reason? No, of course not. I think it’s usually silly to pick one design element, and then judge an entire product based solely on that. The FR-64 is a good example - it was an extraordinary arm in spite of a few drawbacks, including the counterweight scheme. On the other hand, to praise the GST-801 as "a engineering tonearm lesson for any manufacturer designer" without noting its design deficiencies and manufacturing /QC problems is a bit misguided. The most complicated counterweight ever made is the one that comes with Technics EPA-100 and EPA-100 mk2 with Variable Dynamic Damping for the cartridges with different compliance. This is amazing feature! And it was not released on new Technics tonearms! Yup! And as far as I know, no one has done it since! |
invictus005... Technics SL-1200 was never a DJ table. Not the new ones. Not the old ones. Never have, never will. They are turntables built exclusively for audiophiles. Some DJs did use them, but that’s their problem It isn’t clear why you make this claim - I don’t recall the SL-1200 ever being marketed to audiophiles. In fact, the SL-1200 wasn’t even the top of the line for Technics during much of its product life. The audiophile magazines of the day were filled with ads for turntables, and I don’t recall Technics ever promoting the SL-1200 in them. In fact, direct drive turntables were very much out of fashion in the audiophile world after many of the early Japanese turntables proved to be such disappointing performers. None of my dealers had the Technics for sale and the DD turntables they did offer were very much high-end, such as Kenwood L07-D, Denon DP-75 and DP-80. For much of the last 40 years, direct drive turntables were more the exception than the rule in audiophile systems. I think many still harbor a lingering prejudice against them. |
