Keep or replace Oracle Delphi


Vinyl playback is turntable, tone arm, cartridge. After 30 years with Oracle Delphi, Eminent Technology, and different cartridges. If I have a budget of $ 5,000.

1.  I can buy a new Technics SL-1300 and a nice Hana SL MkII.  And retire the Oracle.

2.  I can buy an SME M2-9 / Origin Live or similar tonearm for the Oracle and the Hana SL MkII for the Oracle Delphi.

Should the Oracle stay or retire?

dcaudio

 

The Oracle Delphi was for years the reference table of hi-fi retailer and renown turntable set-up man Brooks Berdan (in the 90’s Bill Johnson flew Brooks out from California to the Audio Research factory in Minnesota to set up the table in the company’s listening room. Bill also had Brooks drive out to his winter home in Indian Wells California to set up his personal table). Brooks gained notoriety for identifying a flaw in the design of that excellent table---the moving mass of the floating sub-chassis was inherently imbalanced, and coming up with a cure for that flaw: Brooks attached a specific weight of stainless steel (in the form of a round block) to the underside of the acrylic at the precise location needed to make the sub-chassis behave perfectly pistonically (bounce up and down in the vertical plane). Oracle eventually incorporated the weight into the table’s design themselves. Brooks sold and installed a great number of Eminent Technology linear tracking arms on that table, a great combo.

When VPI introduced the HW-19 Brooks began selling that table as a partner for the ET arm, finding the HW-19 to provide a more stable platform for the relatively high horizontal moving mass  of the ET. The  HW-19’s suspension was stiffer than that of the Delphi, and its floating sub-chassis of higher mass than that of the Oracle, both better for the ET arm.

When VPI introduced the even higher mass TNT table, it became Brooks’ first choice for use with the ET arm. It remains a great choice, and plenty of used TNT’s (in all it’s many iterations. My favorite is the MK.5) are available on the used market. He also used both VPI tables as the platform for his personal favorite arm, the Graham Engineering Phantom.

I myself use the VPI Aries as the table for use with the Trans-Fi linear tracking arm. The Aries is of lower mass than the TNT (about the same as that of the HW-19, which I also own), but then the Trans-FI arm has much lower horizontal moving mass than does the ET arm.

I second the recommendation by @mofimadness of the Zeta arm. It is a forgotten classic, very similar in design and build to the Kuzma Stogi. The Zeta is a little higher in moving mass than most current designs, great for use with lower compliance cartridges. 

  

@mofimadness  I do agree Jeff is a wonderful person to work with. I have a 12 inch and 10.5 inch Series 6 arm on a Scheu Analo Das Laufwerk No 2 turntable. They work well with a wide range of cartridges. Nicely designed arm wand, a great yoke, quality bearings, a well thought out counterweight and tone arm stub. The arm is built to do a great job, and the price is quite reasonable for what tonearms sell for today. 

@neonknight...I have a Classic II, Series 4 & Series 5 Audiomod arms.

Jeff's one of the best out there...and his arms don't suck...one of the best buys in audio, IMHO.