Tonearm recomendations


I am doing a diy plinth project with a Rek o kut B12. I would like to know about tonearm length and where too short or too long comes into play. I would also like to know about wood arms.
Any experience would be greatly appreciative. I need to stay under 400.00 us new or used.

Thanks
fordmod

Showing 2 responses by phill

Hello, I am going through the same thing, I bought a Rek O kut B-12GH and will build a plinth. Ideally, I would like to find an arm that would be a drop in replacement, I need to go to vinyl.engine before I start enlarging the existing hole. I have read conflicting reports as to what is best when it comes to mounting the arm, top plate mounting vs plinth mounting. It has been suggested that the table can be mounted in the plinth by turning the table so the top of the top plate is now located on the side where the arm is usually located and the arm is then easily mounted in the plinth, hope that makes sense. My table came with a ROK arm but it had some problems and the bearings are really sloppy. I may go for a Rega and enlarge the existing hole to get the correct spindle to bearing dimensions, plus the arm is cheap and can be upgraded. One of the important things when building one of these tables is to get the Idler wheel rebuilt by Ed Crocket at Vintage Electonics, total cost is approx. $30.00. I want to build up the table first and listen to it then have the Idler wheel rebuilt to see what the improvement is. What materials are you going to use for the plinth? Another site with good info is Roktips. Good luck.

Phill
Honestly Ed I think if an arm is within a few mm when mounted in the existing arm hole it will be OK as long as the cartridge can still be adjusted. I used to have a Scheu Premier MK II table and It was said that it was OK to set the arm up within a 5 mm range. What arms do you know of that would be a direct drop in replacement? I can't wait to complete this project to see for myself what an Idler Drive can do, I've never heard one play before, it should be interesting.

Regards,

Phill