Getting prepared to do an arm tube swap with Cardas litz wire on one of my 1200s using the titanium arm tube from an M5G model. I've done this swap before, but this time I want to add some very fine lambs wool wrap around the wire.
I notice with some of the rewired arms I've done previously the top end took a slight hit in overall detail and the midrange sounded a bit peaky. I would attribute this to the stock alu arm being more lively and resonance prone in the HF.
I have an SME109 arm on one of my 1200s which was upgraded with ceramic bearings, but otherwise stock aside from wiring. This arm sounds very balanced and detailed with a VDH3 MC cart but it doesn't have the bass extension of the M5G arm with an AT-OC9/2 cart.
So my ultimate goal here is to have the new M5G arm setup along with a fluid dampener and cardas wire, so I can sell the SME along with its mounting base or use it on another custom TT built from a Corian plinth with SL1200 drive. On this one I'd like to use my magnetic bearing setup with the dynamic height adjustment. This would be the test bed for the bearing setup.
Has anyone done anything similar to their SL1200 using the magnesium or titanium arm tube? I also have a graphite powder resin composite coated arm tube which weighs about 0.3 g more than stock. This one also sounds very good but also has duller top end.
I notice with some of the rewired arms I've done previously the top end took a slight hit in overall detail and the midrange sounded a bit peaky. I would attribute this to the stock alu arm being more lively and resonance prone in the HF.
I have an SME109 arm on one of my 1200s which was upgraded with ceramic bearings, but otherwise stock aside from wiring. This arm sounds very balanced and detailed with a VDH3 MC cart but it doesn't have the bass extension of the M5G arm with an AT-OC9/2 cart.
So my ultimate goal here is to have the new M5G arm setup along with a fluid dampener and cardas wire, so I can sell the SME along with its mounting base or use it on another custom TT built from a Corian plinth with SL1200 drive. On this one I'd like to use my magnetic bearing setup with the dynamic height adjustment. This would be the test bed for the bearing setup.
Has anyone done anything similar to their SL1200 using the magnesium or titanium arm tube? I also have a graphite powder resin composite coated arm tube which weighs about 0.3 g more than stock. This one also sounds very good but also has duller top end.
Hy Profiguy, wiring of tonearms is an endless topic. My personal experience is that "mechanics" are equally important as the wire metal. In my tonearm concept www.sambuco.net I twisted and glued the isolated wires together to make them physically and electrically "stable". Any movement of a wire (and there is a lot of vibration in a tonearm) changes its capacity and (little) resistance. Good luck!
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@Lukas at SAMBUCO I've tried braiding the tonearm wires in the past. I didn't like what it did to the top end. Maybe how the ground wire was interleaved was the issue and how the inductance affected it.
Do you have a specific pattern you use? I don't really use MM carts so capacitance isn't an issue.
Do you have a specific pattern you use? I don't really use MM carts so capacitance isn't an issue.
I ended up using the Magnesium arm instead of the titanium one. The Mg arm has a cleaner top end than any other material on this Technics arm. I also didn't dampen it internally. The last time I did so, it completely gutted the midrange detail and air in the treble. It may be needed on the stock aluminum arm tube, but even then it just dulls the HF response too heavily.
I have the top end all done with the arm in place and the drive PCB running off both internal and external supplies as options.
The external PS performs very well using that Mean Wel 50W SMPS. The supply doesn't even get warm in the sealed enclosure, which pulls and radiates any residual heat.
I really like the silver tone arm contrasting with the black base. It looks a bit more higher end this way instead of being all black.
The external PS performs very well using that Mean Wel 50W SMPS. The supply doesn't even get warm in the sealed enclosure, which pulls and radiates any residual heat.
I really like the silver tone arm contrasting with the black base. It looks a bit more higher end this way instead of being all black.
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