Ariston RD11 with Discovery RB250... armboard? and weight/suspension question

[drec]

Hi folks,

TT newbie here, getting my first half decent TT tomorrow! Getting an Ariston RD11. I've ordered a new Linn spring set as well as a Discovery RB250 rewired and with new stub/counterweight.

Question: It comes with the original tonearm. Can I pop the RB250 in there, or do I have to manufacture a new round armboard? If so, does anyone have the dimensions, as I can't find them in the RB250 manual. Also, what wood would you use?

I've read that it's best to offset the heavier-than-70s-tonearms weight of the RB250 with more weight on the other side in order to make the suspension match. Where's a good place to put this weight?

Thanks for the answers!

[atavid]

Hi Drec,i'm a bit confused, is your TT an RD11 or an RD11s.
The original RD11 had a tonearm mounting board the same shape as the rectangular one on the Linn LP12. Although having just said that i just had a vague recollection of seeing an Ariston with the RD11 nonclementure on it but having the round tone arm mount,so i could be wrong there.Post a pic for us.
If it does have the round tonearm mount and it is the same as mine then the mounting plate is 87mm in diameter and 10mm thick.I replaced my original round plastic arm plate with an acrylic one i had made.
Ive just done a heap of mods to mine that have really improved it to another level entirely so its quite a responsive design to some tweaks and some major mods.
I have an RB300 tonearm but have replaced my springs with the black Linn units.Ive not worried about trying to counteract the uneven weighting at this stage.

[drec]

It's an RD11. We'll see the armboard today!

Best,
Andre

[sreten]

Hi,

The original arm is likely to have very Rega like mounting dimensions.
(I had one on my first built turntable)
Where has this idea the Rega is heavy come from ?
I'd expect it to be slightly lighter than the Ariston arm.

Assuming it is this arm :



/sreten.

[drec]

Got it today. It's an RD11E. Comes with the RB200-like (or is it really an RB200?) S-curve arm with the circular armboard. I will make my own for the modded RB250, which I'm guessing should be better than this... if it's not that much better, I can flip it.

BTW, the table sounds pretty nice to begin with, except that the subplatter doesn't bounce for 6 seconds like some others' RDs I've read about... just less than 2 seconds! I will go over it with the new springs. Curiously, the arm rest is at an angle by which it impedes the tonearm from touching a record at the beginning... I can only start around 1cm into the record. Has someone been fooling around with this table? I will see what I can do.

Thanks for the responses,
A

[drec]

Ah, silly me-- the whole assembly even MOVES in the armboard!

Toldcha I was new!

Best,
A

[chrisb]

IINM, Rega never manufactured an S-shaped arm - the arm on the earliest Model 2 and 3 tables would have been an OEM by anybodies guess .

They weren't horrible arms - certainly at least the equal of most of the cheaper Japanese and Dual turntables of the era, but not the equal of Grace 707, SME3009, Formula 4 or other popular arms were being on the early LP12s before Linn starting building their own.

[Nanook]

if the fuzz between my ears is working ok rtight now. Some folks quite liked them, I'm sure dave may have a story or two...

[sreten]

Hi,

The Acos Lustre (SME-u-like base) is a fore-runner of the Rega
R200, which was made for Rega by Acos to their specifications.



This end is very different to a Lustre, and the arm Ariston used.

The Ariston s-shaped arm has no model name, not as good as the Rega.

The Rega R200 is one the best heavyish detachable headshell
s-shaped arms you can get, regardless of the originals price.

/sreten.

[Nanook]

really the only way to do it.

stew