Best Tonearm and Cartridge for 4K or under for restored Garrard 301

Can you pls elaborate on the One continuous wire from cartridge clip to RCAs..  I use RCA cable from back of the TT to PPA990.

Yeah that's what you want to avoid, the interconnect between the table and the phono stage. What you want is an arm with integral RCA. In other words the cable and RCA is hard wired into the arm. One continuous wire. 

This is because the signal coming off the cartridge is the weakest faintest most delicate in all of audio. The next stage in the process, the phono stage amplifies this weak signal by the most amplification in all of audio. The last thing you want to do in a situation like this is subject that signal to a whole bunch of unnecessary connections. Every one of which is prone to micro-arcing and all the many other imperfections inherent in every connection.

As far as setup goes, do it yourself. Its not nearly as hard as its made out to be. Its not nearly as expensive. You can download and print alignment grids right off the web, and then with a $20 Shure stylus force gauge and some tweezers you are set. 

The reason this is all you need is because all the fancy jigs and meters and whatnot, all they really ever do is get you close. Once you get close all the fine tuning is done by ear. When you are tweaking VTF .05g by ear and the cartridge spec is a range twenty times as big you begin to understand why it just doesn't matter what gauge you use. When you are tweaking VTA by equally tiny amounts and doing it all by ear you begin to understand what a waste an expensive protractor is. And when you do all this stuff and see and hear and it all sinks in then you actually know what's going on and realize that right there was worth ten times the effort- and you will not hesitate to do it again, and again, and it only gets easier and easier. So just do it.

Chakster wrote that Oswald Mills Audio plinth is made of graphite. That is incorrect. They are made of Pennsylvania slate. Slate and graphite are two different things.
Also, perhaps paradoxically, use of a heavier counterweight could have the effect of reducing the effective mass of the tonearm overall. This is because the effect of the counter weight on tonearm effective mass is proportional to its distance from the pivot-squared, times the weight of the CW. Thus the distance from the pivot is dominant. And substituting a heavy CW for a light one will bring the CW closer to the pivot, all other things being equal.

I agree in principle with what Miller carbon says about having a direct connection from the cartridge all the way to the input of the phono stage, but that is only an ideal goal and certainly not a necessity. I do insist upon it with very low output moving coil cartridges, but I cannot hear a difference with higher output moving magnet cartridges, for example.

@millercarbon   Funny, your first post here represents my tonearm.  It's a 1989 SME IV with Cardas rewire continuous from the cartridge clips to an outboard junction box (epoxied wiring at the bottom of the SME so it can't be pulled out and the box mounted to the back of the table).  I especially like the arm's less sensitivity to vertical tracking angle.  I can play 120 to 180 gram records and not have the problem many other high end arms have where the listener has to adjust the VTA up or down based on the record thickness.  The negative is that it's a pain to get the VTA correct using the armspring method and lock.  If I had to do it again, I would buy the SME V.  The arm has about 10,000 hours on it and is in perfect condition.   The 1989 SMEs came with crappy wiring and a DIN connection.  Rewire it with RCA termination and it's a bargain high end arm.

Miller would have a baby with my tonearms setup on my 401.
Micro Seiki ma505ls.
Detachable headshell.
Din plug cable.
Out to Denon sut.
Out to Phonostage
Finally into integrated.

Lol.

But not quite sure why Miller even posting here as he is a confirmed idler drive hater?
Rumble, rumble like a cement mixer .
😉😉

@lewm

Chakster wrote that Oswald Mills Audio plinth is made of graphite. That is incorrect. They are made of Pennsylvania slate. Slate and graphite are two different things.

Wow, so it was my mistake then, mainly because those slate plinth looks identical to OMA graphite mats and shells. I watched a video how it was made (the plinth). Seems like they do not make any slate plinth anymore, now only cast iron.


OMA Graphite mat and graphite headshell

"The OMA graphite mat is precision machined from an extremely high grade of polycrystalline graphite, not amorphous carbon, which is graphite dust in resin." -OMA

Also, perhaps paradoxically, use of a heavier counterweight could have the effect of reducing the effective mass of the tonearm overall. This is because the effect of the counter weight on tonearm effective mass is proportional to its distance from the pivot-squared, times the weight of the CW. Thus the distance from the pivot is dominant. And substituting a heavy CW for a light one will bring the CW closer to the pivot, all other things being equal.

This is where you are wrong, because IKEDA-SAN designed OPTIONAL W-250 counterweight for FR-64fx tonearm for use with his FR-7f series cartridges. Cartridge alone is over 30g and counterweight is located very close to the pivot when i’m using FR-7fz on my FR-64fx. As you can see in the catalog W-250 counterweight comes with FR-66fx tonearm, the 66 is higher mass arm.

To use FR-64fx with FR-7f series (or SPU) every owner need a heavier counterweight (W-250) for optimal performance on this particular tonearm. Bacause the stock counterweight for FR-64fx toneams is much lighter and smaller, to balance FR-7f it must be far away from the spindle which is NOT optimal for high mass low compliance cartridges. This is why W-250 was made by Ikeda. And it is very close to the pivot when FR-7fz is mounted and adjusted. W-250 is bigger than heaviest counterweight you have with your FR-64s.

My comment was given for Fidelity-Research tonearm "FX" series.

Now i have two FR-64fx tonearms, one that i use ONLY with my FR-7fz with W250 counterweight and it’s optimal for this combination according to Ikeda-San.

And another NOS in the box with stock small counterweight for conventional cartridges on conventional headshells that i’m gonna try on this tonearm in the future (Miyabi for example). "FX" series is so beautiful and i love it! I wish i could have black B-60 base for it. But now i have two N-60 for my FX beauties.  

Anyway, my FR-64s with b60 is next to it.