Hi, just would be interested to know if the original Aro tone arm is “unit” matched to it’s base? Or you can interchange it with another Aro tone arm that has a different cart on it. Im guessing you can, just would like to make sure.
Cheers
There’s no particular match as such; any arm top should work with any bearing and base. Naim also used to sell the arm tops as a separate item so you could have a number of them with cartridges fitted and counterweights set and could easily swap between them.
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Naim also used to make two counterweights. Standard and the heavy counterweight. Both are discontinued spares items but a heavy counterweight is a good investment if you ever see one coming up second-hand.
The issue of “matching” is very inportant between the bearing pillar and the collar BTW. Typically people over-tighten the grub screw securing the pillar causing the fit to the collar to be degraded. The bearing should glide smoothly/freely within the collar when the grub screw is unlocked and the grub screw should only be lightly nipped up once VTA is set for best SQ.
KR
Peter
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Thank you Peter, A friend of mine has given me i very generous opportunity to change out my Aro with a newer one that he owns. If I side by side compare them his looks a lot newer as it’s finish is a dark side of shininess while the one I own almost looks slightly corroded (Not sure how or if I should give it rub down…scary). The Aro I own is from around 89’ and has a white package box, I’m unsure what year the other one is but it does have the newer black/dark green box. I was thinking of just swapping the tone arms over? any wise advice as I’m terrified of going down a garden path.
Oh even thou I own an ancient Lp12 it sounds terrific! better than any Digital source of ever heard, thou it did take while to get right with generous help from this forum.
Thank you
Soundsfaber. Firstly do not rub anything down!
Age identification should be fairly easy as even if the outer box with serial no is missing there should be a serial no on the inside of the cup. You can then contact Naim quoting the serial Nos for both Aros if you wish.
If no serial No present, then a Naim logo on the headshell indicates it’s an earlier Aro. Later production did not have the Naim logo on the headshell.
Age in itself is not a problem but I would suggest having your retailer test the electrical impedance of the arm tube. There are test points on the underside of the cup and also at the rear of the underside of the headshell. Ideally you should get a reading as low as possible. Less than five Ohms is what I hope you see. Above this, it’s not ideal and sound quality of that top will be compromised and so a trip to Naim Service to correct this would be advised if they can still do this.
Either way, an opportunity to acquire an Aro IMHO should not be missed!
KR
Peter
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Thank you. I see the newer serial for the his Aro comes at 94’ where my one is 88. Just a different colour like the newer one looks to made from titanium almost.
Anyway thank you for your help. I’m in New Zealand so we do have a Naim guru who can help. Hers is a pic I took today when we had a play. His has a Titan i but with cross core Technology (thanks Stig👍) has about an hour on it, has a bit of scratching us and sibilance at the moment but you can tell where it’s going to go, mines a kelos SL.
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You do indeed! 
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Thank you Peter for that advice. Thought I would check the pillar grub screw securing and adjusted the ‘nip’ a bit. Might even be a bit more finesse to the sound now on top of what was already sounding great. Then rounded off with a Radikal reset.
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What about servicing Aro? My dealer is trying to send my Aro to naim, but there is no response! Or more likely they refuse to do it!
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I don’t think what your saying is correct. Naim will let your dealer know when they get to it.
It’s a surprise for me, too. In the last nine months, I get only tickets from the Support Team for my questions, but not answers.
Emil, if you let me know your last ticket number I can follow it up for you.
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Thank you, Richard! Is there another way to contact you or I should post it here?
I’ve messaged you.
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Sadly it is. Hopefully common sense will prevail as there are potentially 1350 Aro owners out there who need back-up through the dealer network and ultimately Naim Service. KR, Peter
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We know there are 500 new owners of Aro2. And probably the number could be raised. What about the service?
Sadly naim just informed me, that they are refusing to service my Aros.
I have my own opinions on this, unfortunately they are not compatible with the forums owners so I’ll leave it at that.
Probably to do with the age of the Aro, it is an old girl from an era of a company that has grown exponentially. As long as your issues isn’t a hardware problem like a head shell replacement and the like. I’m sure you could find somebody to fix up wiring etc
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It’s not wilful refusal, it’s actually that they can’t because they don’t have the required parts or equipment any more. I’m told that Naim did try to help out as best they could but often Aros would arrive in need of more work than expected and without certain parts it just became impossible to repair them back to Naim’s high standard, so a final decision had to be made.
It made a great deal of sense to sub-contract the Aro2 production to Clearaudio - they have the space, capacity and expertise on hand. I take it they will be responsible for any repair our service of the Aro2. AFAIK it shares no identical parts with the original though so any service or repair of the original Aro would now be down to enterprising individual specialists. Of course, much will depend on how serviceable are existing parts.
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@Emil Well… I will try my best for you. One of the two tops I am confident of a repair.
The other with the continuity issue along the arm tube is more problematic and so I can only try. I’ll order some electrically conductive paint later. - It just depends where the break is!
@Richard.Dane Is Clive still contactable at the factory Richard??
KR, Peter
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