Denon, Shelter arm choices

Hi Joe, in general, those cartridges like to have heavier mass tonearms with excellent bearing quality and low resonance, high rigidity arm tubes.

I'd say that the Origin Live Silver, Encounter, and Illustrious are good choices. Also perhaps a SME V, or a Breuer, or an ET-2.5, or Walker, or a Triplanar. Additionally, some people really like them on a Graham 2.2. I haven't tried the Basis Vector, but it seems like a nice arm. If you go with a unipivot arm, try to be sure that it is heavy enough and has some form of lateral stabilizers to assist with handling the low compliance of these cartridges. If you go with a gimbal-bearing arm, then make sure that the bearings and adjustments are very close tolerance(otherwise they will chatter and ruin the bearings).

Thanks Tom. I just wanted to get set on what not to use. I'm going to start keeping an eye out for another arm. Having 2 Regas just doesn't seem...right. Also, I figured out how I'm going to do a clamp/weight. Should be interesting....

I'll put up pics if I can ever find the time to get it done....

See the thread on Shelter 901/Graham. Apparently someone with that combination is experiencing a bloated bass.

I can vouch for Shelter 901/SME V. It's a great combo. Good extension on both ends, very detailed. On my system, I woudl describe it as on the analytical side of neutral. My friend just purchased a 901 with his SME 309. Apparently he's experiencing some anti-skate problems. I am going over tonight to help him figure out what the problem is.

FrankC

This doesn't exactly answer your question, but the Ittok works great (on a Linn LP12) with the Shelter 901. The 901 is a fantastic cartridge; great low end, mid range, and high end; the bass is deep and tight, the midrange is open and airy, the high end makes cymbals sound real. I've compared it to the current (not the old) Koetsu Black and the Dynavector 17DII and it has the best qualities of those two plus more; it's really in a different league than either of those two. It's hard to imagine a more detailed, realistic and pleasing cartridge. Get an Ittok and an LP12, mount the 901 and you can move on to upgrading other parts of your system - or just listen and smile.

LP12 an upgrade? You're kidding, right? I like the Ittok arm on a friend of mine's Linn, but his rig, even with "better" electronics just cannot compete with mine. Especially since I added the battery option today. There was an immediate and noticeable improvement. Way, way, way more than a hundred bucks worth.

Now the 901 is a different story. If I quit buying other crap (not all audio related) I would have one by now. I was actually going to buy one when the Supatek came available. But, it was just too good of a deal to pass up!

Frank, did you find the problem with the 309? I was looking at a 312, and that may be an option too.

The other thing I'm going to do today is the TWL HiFi mod. For some reason, I have not gotten around to doing it yet.