Selecting Between Vintage Denon and Microseiki Tonearms

OP,

can you approximately measure center of spindle to center of arm post ____ mm

I’m a big fan of the MA 505 arms, (222mm s/post + 15mm overhang = 237 effective). It says designed for high compliance and also good for medium compliance.

I helped my friend buy, mount, calibrate a short and 505L long one for his Luxman PD444 2 arm TT.

Easy arm height adjustment, but, not so smooth I would do it on the fly like I can on my Acos Lustre GST-801, the easiest and smoothest height adjuster I have used.

I love the azimuth adjustable fitting on the end of the tonearm, that should be an industry standard. 

Surprisingly, that tungsten wire is strong as hell, does not stretch, and the adjusters were very close to the digital scale,

I learned a lot about them, Vinylengine.com has all the manuals to download. See the variations how to mount them below the armboard.

check every detail:

Some have the supplemental counterweight.

Some have the heavy stabilizer nut below the armboard to fasten them, I prefer that to a simple lighter nut, my Acos Lustre has that also. If you find a nice arm without it, they occasionally pop up for sale separately. 

Short arm: we discovered a problem on the small top armplate of the lifter, the screw was missing, seller had dropped a bit of glue and was careful with his photos so we didn’t know. VAS easily fixed it.

And, the arm height lever broke the 1st time we tried to tighten it, I suspect it might have been cracked, but hard to prove, easier to fix it. I found a socket head screw that fit the threads the proper length, BUT, the original part has a nylon tip on it’s end so it does not score the arm post. We put a small bit of plastic in the hole, the screw pushes it against the post.

Long arm, we had learned from the 1st one, we asked more up front questions, it was complete and perfect.

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btw, My rear arm, I had a 222mm hole, and the Acos needed 225mm. I was able to ease the hole wider, and the Acos bottom plate covered the slightly elongated hole.

OP

Now I remember, you used to own an Acos Lustre GST-801, and you told me what optional parts to look for. Thanks again for that.

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/tonearm-acos-lustre-gst-801-yea-nay

this old ma505 discussion popped up (I didn't read it, just found it)

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/micro-seiki-ma-505-arm-how-good-is-it

@neonknight, I have a MA505 and consider it a very good arm, but a word of caution.

When I got it the counterweight drooped.  By that I mean it tipped downward slightly, not on level plane with the arm.  Attempting research online I found some who said that was standard, others said it was defective.  Apparently that was common enough for some to believe it was the original design.

Anyway I found a tech with experience with MS arms (unfortunately he's no longer with us) who was able to repair mine.

I recently bought a DP-3000NE and the tonearm is quite excellent.  I don't know if Denon markets the arm separately, but if so I commend it to your attention without reservation.

I found some info about Bill’s new Denon tonearm:

from this review

https://hometheaterhifi.com/reviews/vinyl/turntables/denon-dp-3000ne-turntable-review/

"The DP-3000NE tonearm is actually not a new design. It is a modern recreation of Denon’s DA-309, which was first seen in 1977 – a tonearm from back in the day. Denon says we should refer to the new arm as the DA-309 as well, but there were a couple of updates made to the unipivot design. The material and finish of the headshell, the color of the anti-skating box, and a revised magnet fixing structure. Most noticeable to the user is the presence of the tonearm lift, which required a redesign of the tonearm base. That new base also adds the ability to adjust VTA. The overall geometry is little changed from the original DA-309, using an S-shaped, extruded aluminum tonearm for an effective length of 9.6 inches. Regarding Dynamic Damping – the goal is to prevent stray vibrations going from the table to the cartridge, via the arm, or in the other direction, dampen any vibrations that do get started in the arm as the needle does its business in the groove. All of this is in keeping with the overall design goals consistent with Denon’s history of making turntables for use in professional broadcasting.

As I look at my 4000 records, I sometimes feel that I must be a bit of a nut. I do find comfort in the extensive design expertise that goes into all of the equipment, however. It proves that I’m not the only nut. Denon’s deep thought regarding tonearm design is a good example. There is some serious engineering here. But I wondered, of all of the Denon tonearms from back in the day, why was the DA-309 chosen as the starting point? The answer was three-fold: 1) It fits the need for a wide compliance range, the ability to support the fecundity of cartridges that we all enjoy in these modern times. 2) The DA-309, due to its vibration dampening, has very low resonance in the key range of 20Hz to 1kHz. And 3) The aesthetics, “classic modern”.

Anti-skate is magnetic and is a snap to adjust. The procedure is combined with setting the stylus pressure – pull out a small plunger at the base of the arm mount, adjust stylus pressure, turn the knob at the end of the anti- skate plunger to match the stylus pressure weight, push the plunger in. The VTA adjustment is via a separate knob on the base, as mentioned.

The manual queuing lever is undamped, but I learned to control cartridge descent in just a few tries. At the other end of the groove, the arm will not lift automatically. As far as I can see, there is no room to install an aftermarket lifter such as the Little Fwend or Audio Technica AT600SR, which I own but can’t fit to either of my tables."