Advice on AR turntable

[Sabby]

I have been offered what seems like a fantastic deal on a modified and refurbished AR XA deck for approx $110 (converted from SA Rands). It doesn't have an arm or cartridge and comes with an armboard for a Linn Basik arm. I last had a t/table way back in the early 80's and my interest has been rekindled with this offer.

Is there anybody out there that has this deck and how good is it? Which arm and cartridge would best compliment it. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[gregory]

Hello, it's a very good deck indeed and capable of upsetting many more expensive deck's. A Linn arm would work well on that deck or you could have the armboard machined to fit a Rega arm, cartridge choice is more dependent on which arm you get but the Denon DL110 is a very nice cartridge. A&R was the forerunner of the Linn lp12 not the Thorens as many people think so it has a good pedigree, a great site for all things A&R is vinyl nirvana.

 

[Sabby]

Thanks for the info. Unfortunately the Denon cartridges are hard to come by here in South Africa. Any other recommendations? Would the Rega RB251 be a better match for this deck than the Linn arm which is also difficult to get over here.

 

[gregory]

I would have thought the Rega to be a good match, as for cartridges, the Ortofon 2m range or any of the Audio Technica cartridges like the AT 95E would be a good starting point, of course depends on your budget, also jelco make a nice range of arms.

 

[Sabby]

Thanks gregory. I will have a look at the Ortofon cartridges as well. Would they be a good match for the RB251?

 

[gregory]

Yes, the 2m range work very well with Rega, almost tailor made for each other. Dont forget the Goldring 1000 series, another good match for the Rega arm.