I am looking for a new tonearm, the VPI 12.5/12.7 has caught my eye. Has anyone on the forum had any experience with this arm ? i have heard so many good things about unipivots, yet i've never used one, let alone heard one in action.
If you have a particular favourite, then i'd like to know more about it, not neccessarily a unipivot. As this will be my last tonearm purchase (hopefully) i have allowed myself a rather generous (in my view) budget. I don't want to spend more than the cost of a Triplanar on Audiogon. Sora Audio to be sure.
If you have a particular favourite, then i'd like to know more about it, not neccessarily a unipivot. As this will be my last tonearm purchase (hopefully) i have allowed myself a rather generous (in my view) budget. I don't want to spend more than the cost of a Triplanar on Audiogon. Sora Audio to be sure.
Hi
I used to have a Linn with an Ittok LVII, then last year I got a VPI Scout, which everyone was raving about. This has the shorter JMW9 unipivot arm. I use a Koetsu Black with this, and the sound is top-class. It's different to the warm Linn sound, but more realistic, I feel. This combination has a dynamic punchy sound with lots of detail, and all the enthusiastic talk about this table/arm was justified, in my opinion. It took a while to get used to the slight wobble when moving the arm into position for playing, but when the stylus tip is in contact with the vinyl, it's rock steady. So, if the 12.5 arm is at least as good, I'd say it's well worth putting on your shortlist. You don't mention which table you have, so I don't know if it would necessarily work with a JMW arm, either sonically or from the point of view of fitting it.
Another unipivot with a good reputation is a Hadcock, especially the recent models (GH242, if I remember correctly). Hadcocks are different in that instead of a point bearing fitting into a cup, it has a rounded tip which fits into four small ballbearings in a housing. I haven't used one, but the general opinion seem to be that they give a fluid, slightly warmer sound than "point" unipivots.
Have a look on;
http://www.tnt-audio.com
Hope this helps
Best Wishes
I used to have a Linn with an Ittok LVII, then last year I got a VPI Scout, which everyone was raving about. This has the shorter JMW9 unipivot arm. I use a Koetsu Black with this, and the sound is top-class. It's different to the warm Linn sound, but more realistic, I feel. This combination has a dynamic punchy sound with lots of detail, and all the enthusiastic talk about this table/arm was justified, in my opinion. It took a while to get used to the slight wobble when moving the arm into position for playing, but when the stylus tip is in contact with the vinyl, it's rock steady. So, if the 12.5 arm is at least as good, I'd say it's well worth putting on your shortlist. You don't mention which table you have, so I don't know if it would necessarily work with a JMW arm, either sonically or from the point of view of fitting it.
Another unipivot with a good reputation is a Hadcock, especially the recent models (GH242, if I remember correctly). Hadcocks are different in that instead of a point bearing fitting into a cup, it has a rounded tip which fits into four small ballbearings in a housing. I haven't used one, but the general opinion seem to be that they give a fluid, slightly warmer sound than "point" unipivots.
Have a look on;
http://www.tnt-audio.com
Hope this helps
Best Wishes
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