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RE: Hot Rodded AR XA

Posted by M3 lover (A) on April 22, 2016 at 11:34:27

In Reply to: Further Stories of A Hot Rodded AR XA posted by Mister Pig on April 22, 2016 at 07:27:47:

Mister Pig,

Nice work, and good to hear that you are so pleased with the results. I've owned or restored a couple of these over the years so do have some questions/comments.

I'm not familiar with Marc or what he does but why would the T-bar need to be checked out? I don't see anything to be done with that unless someone wants to change tonearms.

Now the springs/suspension attached to the T-bar are another story so perhaps that is what you meant.

My surprise though is your choice of the Denon 103, a low compliance cartridge which is normally matched with a medium to high mass arm. I've never seen specs but the AR arm seems to be low mass so better suited with high compliance cartridges.

While still in production, AR offered instructions for removal of the damping pin in the arm. Unless very carefully adjusted that could affect arm movement and thus performance.

Your photo is not clear (at least on my screen) but obviously you have changed headshells. That is good since the AR headshell can be adjusted for overhang but not offset, so unless someone is very lucky correct alignment may not be achieved.

Lastly, that "Spartan look" was good enough to be selected for display in the MOMA.

You obviously have a nice collection of classic tables and I am not surprised (other than the Denon 103 match up) that you are finding such listening pleasure with the AR. I restored one a couple of years ago and was surprised myself by that reminder of what a good table it is. Enjoy!

"The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing, if you can fake that you've got it made." Groucho

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