Tonearms up to £699
Rega RB251
The RB251 is an evolution of the classic RB250. The main change is the use of a 3 point fixing instead of the original threaded arm mounting. It features the classic Rega die cast arm tube ensuring great rigidity from headshell to bearings, which is still quite exceptional in a tonearm at this price.
Below: This picture shows the three point fixing more clearly, and most old Rega fit arm boards can be suitably modified to accept this new design if required.
Rega RB251 tonearm: £142.00
The Rega RB303 is quite possibly one of those landmark products that comes along
only once in a blue moon. Its true predecessor, the RB300, revolutionised budget
tonearm performance when it was launched in 1983 and became the standard against
which all others were judged. The RB303 seems to have gone a serious step further,
and it appears to be thanks to an improvement to what makes the classic Rega tonearms
so special -
The results based on early listening are something of a revelation, the sound is more immediate, cleaner and the slight greyness that Rega arms have always exhibited appears to have gone too. Now I’m not rubbishing the sound of the old arm, it was and is a giant killer, its limitations were fairly benign and never a real issue with sane priced system combinations, but they were identifiable and repeatable. However the RB303 seems to have addressed these few weak points and in doing so moved the benchmark for budget tonearms on a huge leap further.
Rega RB303 tonearm: £348.00
Roksan Nima
The Nima tonearm is quite radical in both appearance and construction. It’s a unipivot
design -
The Nima was originally designed as part of the Radius 5 turntable package, but due to its excellent value it stands on its own against any arm.
In common with all unipivots it offers an expansive soundstage and freedom of sound that can make fixed pivot arms sound constricted in comparison (but as to which presentation is correct is, as always, a matter of system matching and personal taste).
The arm fits into a Rega cut out so can be used on many turntables easily, although we’d recommend avoiding turntables with very lively suspension as cueing and footfalls could cause problems, however it can successfully be used on turntables like the Linn LP12.
An uprated high definition external arm cable is also now available as an option for £156.
Roksan Nima tonearm £499.00
Michell TecnoArm A
The TecnoArm A is another modified RB250, but Michell’s upgrades are some of the most comprehensive and certainly the best executed that we’ve come across.
The attention to detail includes an arm tube that is drilled on its underside to reduce mass and resonance’s. The underside of the headshell is then machined to ensure its absolutely level and finally the whole tube is bead blasted.
The wiring is replaced with very high quality pure silver cable from Deskadel which runs in one continuous piece from the cartridge tags to the phono plugs (both sets of connectors are naturally silver plated).
The counterweight is the beautifully engineered Tecnoweight which is marked to every 0.1 gramme so tracking force can be setup without a stylus balance. Finally a VTA adjuster and finger nut is included for decks with a suitable armboard allowing easy changes of vertical tracking angle to be made without tools (although the VTA adjuster can easily be removed for decks that don’t have the provision for it).
After all this work is completed the bearings are adjusted by hand by Rega trained engineers (unlike many of the modified Rega arms on the market) to ensure the best results.
The sound of the Tecnoarm A is extraordinary and ultimately will tell you more about the cartridge fitted to it than it will about itself. However what stands out is a level of detail retrieval and precision that few can match and none at this price level that we know about.
Michell Tecnoarm a: £549
Michell Tecnoarm a Black: in black paint finish £559
Nottingham Analogue Interspace: £535
The Interspace tonearm is fantastic value for money. It combines an ultra light weight carbon fibre arm tube with a damped unipivot bearing and is in essence a scaled down version of the Ace Space arms (see below). As you’d expect from Nottingham Analogue the engineering is superb and the sound is fast, open and immediate.
Audio Note Arm 1, Arm 2 and Arm 3
New for 2011 is a new affordable tonearm design from Audio Note. These exquisitely made arms use a single piece of machined aluminium for the one piece arm tube/headshell, which is internally tapered to keep the arm both stiff and light. Another solid block of aluminium is machined to make the bearing housing which contains ‘captured unipivot’ bearings.
The arm uses the same geometry and fixings as Rega arms, so can be fitted to almost any deck, and thanks to a wonderfully simple and effective collar (pictured below), vta can easily and repeatedly be adjusted in tiny increments (there’s a clear marking for every 0.25mm increment).
At first the most striking thing about the sound of this arm is the sheer speed of
transients, the leading edges of notes are captured brilliantly and seemingly not
at the expense of their natural decay (as is often the case with many ‘fast’ sounding
products). It has a very focused and tight sound, like it’s always in control but
it doesn’t ‘sit on’ the music at all. In fact I it’s a very hard product to fault
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The arms are available in silver or black finished and the different models are identical except for the differing grades of Audio Note wiring used internally and externally (the Arm 1 is pictured and auditioned here).
Audio Note Arm 1 -
Audio Note Arm 2 -
Audio Note Arm 3 -
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