FR64 to FR66 conversion Analogmagik

In my view you should consider that the FR64S will be more compatible with a wider variety of TT's than the FR66S due to the 12 inch arm not fitting many TT's.

Is a small improvement worth the downside.

Also you have an increase in effective mass and inertia - pushing the arm into a smaller group of compatible cartridges.

If you really want to optimise the FR64S and are prepared to butcher it - get the guy to drill holes up and down the FR64S arm tube to lower the effective mass, eliminate the head shell bayonet mount, and wire the arm from cartridge to phono input in a continuous run. That along with a bearing upgrade should improve the arm immensely, and should outperform a standard FR66S by some margin.

Well

This is going to a second arm on either my EMT 950 (for which I will make a custom mount) or my JVC QL10 for which I am building my own plinth.

It's purely a performance thing.

Price wise it is not extortionate especially when done at the same time of the refurb and rewire (i read the @syntax thread)

@dover i think the arm would be completely different if i did all your suggested mods 🤣

@lohanimal , I'm curious to hear about your custom plinth for the TT101 that your building. I'm using a TT71 in an original Victor CL-2P plinth with custom aluminum quick change arm boards. Tonearms are either a Victor UA-7045, UA-7082 or an Audio Technica ATP-12T and cartridges are different flavors of the Denon DL-103. I consider this my reference table. Speed is dead stable at 33.33 and never wavers testing with the KAB strobe kit.

BillWojo

I believe that Richard Mak performs all of the upgrades suggested by @dover except drilling holes the length of the arm to reduce mass.

FYI, I use my FR64S on my modified QL10. Plinth has been heavily reinforced with aluminum and the armboard went in the trash in favor of an aluminum copy that is also bulked up. At that point in my audio life when I acquired the QL10 and fixed the TT101, I had no more patience for creating a new plinth from scratch. So I improved upon the original.