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Seeking arm suggestions for a Grace F9R

I recently bought an F9 body and a SoundSmith Ruby OCL stylus. I currently have it mounted on an Acos Lustre GST-801 with a 7gr headshell but still a bit heavy with the resonance is in the 7 hz range. I'm liking it's sound and contemplating changing arms. Any F9 owners willing to make suggestions of great matching arms for it. (no 12" please)
Thanks,
Robbie
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dgarretson
2,588 posts
 

I don’t think you can rely on the original Grace spec for compliance of the Soundsmith OCL Ruby suspension. Best to ask Peter Lederman. Its highish 1.8gm tracking force suggests a lower compliance than a stock Ruby.

I have an F9 body with the Soundsmith OCL stylus assembly. It’s up there with the best of the vintage MM/MI. It has worked well with a lightweight Trans-Fi Terminator, a Micro Seiki 808X(or the more generally available 505) and a SME 3012R(with one-half of it’s split counterweight removed to lighten mass). I haven’t yet tried it with a light pivot arm-- maybe one of these days my Signet XK-50 or EPA-100.

yogiboy's avatar
yogiboy
5,467 posts
 
Resonance at 7hz is not the worst unless you have many warped records. If you can get a lighter headshell it will bring the resonance up a few hz!
https://www.gcaudio.com/tips-tricks/tonearm-cartridge-compatability/
almarg's avatar
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almarg
9,670 posts
 
FWIW, for several years I used an F9 with the Soundsmith "Ruby Cantilever/Nude Contact Line Diamond" stylus assembly (which apparently is similar to the OCL aside from the stylus profile) on my Magnepan Unitrac I arm. I was very pleased with the combo, and so I would second Mr. Rodman’s endorsement of that arm as being an excellent candidate if you can find one.

Regards,
-- Al

chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 
I've been using my F-14 LC-OFC with original L12B stylus on Victor UA-7045 with Stax HS-7 headshell. Another great arm for high compliance cartridges is stand alone Luxman TA-1 with arm stabilizer and removable armwand.  

But original Grace is high a compliance cartridge, SoundSmith refurbished is not a high compliance.

There are some nice original Grace styli with nude Shibata tip and nude LineContact tip, this models are the best in F-9 series, it was desidned for F-9F and F-9U (blue color). Upgraded version of FR-9U stylus was made for LEVEL II series (different plastic housing desing, but also blue color), i have two sealed NOS is anyone interested. 

 
rodman99999
5,985 posts
 
Mr chakster- The original Grace F9R’s compliance, was 12 x 10-6cm/Dyne(kinda medium compliance), as were the majority of the F9 series. Many of Mr Ledermann’s Soundsmiths, are in the 22 to 28 x 10-6cm/Dyne range. Don’t know if he can, does or will retip a Grace, with that kind of spec. Many retippers replace only the cantilever and stylus, reusing the compliance material. I doubt that he(Peter) reduces/lowers the compliance, though I can’t swear to anything.
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