Tone arm cable buying help

[kusum65]

Ive been lucky enough to get a good deal on a jelco 250 arm for my Technics 1210 from E bay. To set it up it could cost me more than i paid for it!

The arm board will cost about £90 and the Jelco tone arm will cost the same.

I could buy an old Linn cable that should fit the Jelco din plug for a lot less. Does any one have an opinion on how important cable quality is in this case. Is it worth skimping?

 

[Anonymous]

I dont know if or how the Linn cable fits but if it does then I wouldnt have thought that would be classed a skimping. I would suspect that a Linn cable would be as good as most at their price point.

 

[kusum65]

Thanks. By the way how do you find the Mark Grant cables. I believe mains cables make a good upgrade and his prices are good.

 

[Anonymous]

The Mark Grants I have are these . Reviewed here although not very favourably for whatever reason. Have a look at the user opinions tab, it makes interesting reading alongside the reviewers comments. Unable to offer opinion on power cables but I would expect them to be up there with some of the best. Quality of product and service are first rate.

 

[kusum65]

Ive decided to get the armboard on sunday from the hi fi show at heathrow. I opened up the jelco box ive had since christmass and found a basic cable in it so im going ahead with the project. Did you do the arm surgery yourself or did your techy allready have a Rega on it? If you did it yourself how easy/difficult was it?

 

[Anonymous]

The techie came with a standard arm but I had a 301 that I bought for a project that never got off the ground. It isnt a difficult job to change the arm, theres just a whole load of screws to remove from the outer and inner covers. There is about 20 on the outside and another 6 on the inner, 4 are located under the feet so you will have to remove them completely. Then there is only 3 screws to remove the whole arm assy plus the ground lead so all you have to do then is fit your new armplate / arm and screw it all back together. Depending on how the armplate is made you may be able to fit just the armplate and then refit the covers then fit the arm last. Thats how I did mine. Didnt want the arm flapping around while refitting all those screws....seemed safer to do it that way.

 

[kusum65]

Seems like you just need a bit of patience and a electric screwdriver by the sound of it!

The main worry is its a low arm and i have a deep cart, a ortofon 2m , which might make VTA tricky. I think the sound hi fi arm boards are adjustable so should be doable. Thanks for the support.

 

[Anonymous]

According to the instructions I have seen the arm height is adjustable between 39 and 60mm.....that should be more than enough.

 

[kusum65]

Do you adjust the arm in a special way or just make sure its parallel with record?

 

[Anonymous]

The general recommendation is for the armtube to be parallel with the record surface....

 

[kusum65]

Thanks . Wish me luck

 

[Anonymous]

Colin B.....?

 

[kusum65]

Yeah! Have you been on my armboard thread on AOS. Ive just joined the big boys there. Bit daunting but those guys know their techys. Theres no way i could afford all those mods though. Id never have any money for records!

Nice guys though, not like the scary ones on VE.

 

[Anonymous]

Poirot has got nothing on me.....

 

[kusum65]

A couple of times ive read a post and thought , yeah thats the sort of thing such and such a journo would say and you find out later it was him all along which always amuses me.