Developing A List Of Tonearm Candidates For A SOTA Turntable

@dover Could be!

But I'm interested in the Nighthawk. Not the Blackbird. The Nighthawk was just released. 

As you may have heard, the Nighthawk is a significant upgrade to the Blackbird. Perhaps the bearing pivot point was upgraded? There were several significant parts upgraded. 

Hey neon, I feel your misery. The problem is that for the suspension of the SOTA to work normally, the arm has to be within a certain weight range. I use a CB on my Cosmos and I am in no hurry to move on. I have also installed the Kuzma 4 Point 9 on a Cosmos with excellent results. The 9 " Origin Live arms fit really well, but their customer service has received more than a few negative comments. There are also several Clearaudio arms that will fit. The Verismo on an SME V is not the greatest match without adding a significant amount of mass to the headshell. I have an MC Diamond which is way heavier than the Verismo and I still have to use the brass mounting plate! The Lyras are a great match for the SME, but you are ready to move on. I would like to try mounting a Reed 2G on the SOTA. It is lighter and more compact for a tower arm and I really like the bearing arrangement and the magnetic anti skating mechanism. The problem is once you buy it you are committed and it might require some modification to the plinth for clearance, something not many are willing to do. I keep thinking I'm going to build a custom plinth for the Cosmos. If I get down to it I might make use the old one as a guinea pig. 

Elevating the arm board won't work because you can only lower arms so far and somehow I do not think a Rega arm is your cup of tea. 

If you have a Thrax CB you might want to get in touch with the man himself and put yourself on the waiting list for one of his hand made wood CBs. I must warn you that I have been on that list for 2 years. 

@mijostyn I have an ebony CB-1L on the Scheu with the Verismo and its a wonderful combination. I love the performance of the arm, but its just such a pain in the butt to set up. Those settings remind me of a 1960’s 0r 70’s era of arm. But I cannot deny it sounds excellent, and probably the main reason I was willing to move on from the SME. I think I will buy a 3009 III to put my MC2000 on and it will be easy to swap in when I want it.

I have not heard of issues with Origin Live, I will look at that closer as I was considering an Enterprise.

I guess a Kuzma would be a solid choice also.

Clearaudio is another I have thought of, but I find no one being enthusiastic about them, and I wonder if its the stigma of a "big" company, something that Ortofon and Audio Technica often get tagged for.

Something will come along. I have the Scheu/Shcroder/Verismo set up and it satisfies. My digital sounds very nice, so I am not in a bad place.

FWIW, I had a Clearaudio Universal arm on an Innovation Wood for a few years. It was a delight to use and did nothing seriously wrong but I never cottoned to it all that much, always finding it a touch lean or metallic. I had a Phantom II on the same two-armed table and preferred it, even before an upgrade to Supreme. I also preferred the Triplanar VII uii I had an another turntable.

Ortofon just released a new line of arms that look very nice and supposedly have some upgrades over their discontinued Jelco-made arms (which actually sound pretty darn good, especially for the money), although I’m not certain exactly what, other than an improved bayonet mounting collar. They look more substantial. Not especially purist, though, with removable headshell and DIN connector, so quite unlike your Schroeder.

@neonknight  I have a method and it takes me only 10 minutes to change cartridges once they are set up for the first time. All it requires is a WallySkater and a stylus force gauge. Each cartridge gets its own mounting plate. They are set up initially with a SmarTractor and the plates are marked with a fine Sharpie so I can return them to the exact same position every time. The VTA scale reading is recorded for each cartridge. Azimuth stays the same throughout. I must add that the WallySkater is a must with magnetic anti skate mechanisms. I set all modern styluses like your Replicant 100 to 11%. 

The Enterprise is a well designed arm. The only thing I do not care for is the anti skate mechanism. I personally think the Kuzma is a better arm even if it is ugly as sin. Check out the Clearaudio Magnify arm. I am very tempted to try this one. It is a brilliant design with all the features I demand in an arm. Like the CB it is deceptively simple. It will fit on the SOTA like an Italian driving glove. The Universal is probably too heavy for the SOTA.