Turntable - And Sanity - Question


Hello all,

I have an AR EB-101 that I have had for about 15 years. It has a Shure V15 Type V-MR on it that I have always been pleased with. I'm not thrilled with the arm on this turntable, as it's always felt...cheap to me - as a matter of fact, the screw that mounts the headshell stripped almost as soon as I turned the screw.

I'd like to either replace the arm on the AR with something with headshells that can be changed (I'd like to do that with ease, as I have a couple of other styli) or else buy a Technics SL-1800 or something and use it as my main deck and move the Shure to it.

Any suggestions? This is kind of driving me nuts, as I'm really not coming up with a solution I like; I'm looking to have a good sounding rig that doesn't require much overt care and is ideal for casual listening, but won't hurt my vinyl. Does anybody know if any of the various Technics models really measure up to the AR I have?

Thanks,

John Sellards
vanmeter
I bought mine in 1981 from Esoteric Audio in Brooklyn Heights. Elliot (he is still there) didn't like the arm either, so he sold them with a Linn Basik arm, which was a great choice. Now my daughter has it. All I did since then was buy a new belt and cartridge.
Oh by the way, John, I may be mistaken about the exact model # of the AR turntable I heard. They had a few from the 80's, an EB-101 and also an ES1-LEGEND. It was definitely a Linn basik+ arm and a Linn k9 cart, but I'm not sure if it was an EB-101 or an ES1. There may be a structural difference between the two, and, consequentialy, might be a difference in the synergy between the table and arm/cart.
Thanks to all...I still haven't figured out what to do. I'd love to find an old Technics arm with the adjustable VTA, but they don't seem to be floating around too often!

Regards,

John Sellards