I have been doing a bit of reading on tone arms lately and have been reading about the various structural modifications for Rega arms with interest.
One outstanding part of all of the options from Michel, Origin Expressimo etc etc is rigidity!
I decided to have a closer look at the Akito on my Axis. The counterweight, as all owners should know has a revolving tracking force scale that moves quite freely to set the “zero point” when balancing the arm. This disc is held in place by 3 little grub screws on the perimeter of the counterweight. The scale has a groove on its perimeter that these 3 screws sit into.
Once you have balanced the tone arm and set the dial to zero, hold everything in place and with a tiny flat jeweller screwdriver tighten one of the grub screws, 3 turns should do it. The disc is now locked in place.
I believe you have now stopped the scale disc from rattling around while the tone arm plays your tunes. Set to the desired tracking force and presto, more focus. It is subtle but worth the money!!!
An added advantage is that you will not loose your zero indication while experimenting with tracking force by accidentally pushing the scale disc out of sync with the weight when fumbling with it.
If you use a separate tracking force gauge, loosening the screws will allow you to remove the scale completely, perhaps the cavities in the counterweight could be stuffed with blu tack as well…
Happy spinning!!!
Guillaume
One outstanding part of all of the options from Michel, Origin Expressimo etc etc is rigidity!
I decided to have a closer look at the Akito on my Axis. The counterweight, as all owners should know has a revolving tracking force scale that moves quite freely to set the “zero point” when balancing the arm. This disc is held in place by 3 little grub screws on the perimeter of the counterweight. The scale has a groove on its perimeter that these 3 screws sit into.
Once you have balanced the tone arm and set the dial to zero, hold everything in place and with a tiny flat jeweller screwdriver tighten one of the grub screws, 3 turns should do it. The disc is now locked in place.
I believe you have now stopped the scale disc from rattling around while the tone arm plays your tunes. Set to the desired tracking force and presto, more focus. It is subtle but worth the money!!!
An added advantage is that you will not loose your zero indication while experimenting with tracking force by accidentally pushing the scale disc out of sync with the weight when fumbling with it.
If you use a separate tracking force gauge, loosening the screws will allow you to remove the scale completely, perhaps the cavities in the counterweight could be stuffed with blu tack as well…
Happy spinning!!!
Guillaume