What are you jonesing for?

Oh I almost forgot:

- Holbo air-bearing turntable with DS Audio optical cartridge

(See what you've done @richardbrand ? You happy now? 😃)

@devinplombier 

Yes, very happy.  Yesterday I got my Holbo up and running for the first time with my old Shure V15 type III and a new Jico SAS/B stylus.

I was going to swap out the Audio Technica VM540ML from my Garrard 301 but the Shure was lying around.  So I have both decks operational.

I scared myself by accidentally setting the tracking force in grains instead of grams and proved that even a Holbo / Shure combo cannot track Bach organ works at about 0.05 grams tracking force!  At Jico's recommended 1.2 grams it is just fine which I think is a tribute to the friction-free tone arm air bearing, given the Shure is a very high compliance, lightweight cartridge

I'll just add that the Holbo makes it very easy to bolt a cartridge in, even if it needs separate nuts.  The tone arm is a parallel tube, and it can be rotated about its long axis so it faces sideways or even upside down.  I set it sideways, and could position the bolts, washers and cartridge without having to physically hold anything in place.  From there getting the nuts on was easy.

The SME 3009 fixed head-shell tonearm, on the other hand, has to be completely removed before a cartridge can be safely installed.  Because mine is so old, the connectors are fragile.  I do have a custom-made wiring loom for it but that requires gymnastics to get the wires through the tonearm.  Something for another day!