I found that today, just for curiosity.
Pardon my ignorance, but what is “aro”?
Tone Arm produced by naim with production ending in 2010 I think.
Scott
Thanks----I have not hear of that one. Not a big vinyl follower. Streamer only.
Thanks Richard
Could someone give the 2 minute/2 sentence “elevator Speach” on this one? Just curious about what was unique and special? Thanks in advance.
Naim originally thought the a rigid bearing type arm was best - such as like the Linn Ittok, Ekos etc… but when designer Guy Lamotte came on board he had an idea for a Unipivot and argued that if done right it had a number of big advantages over the rigid bearing types. Julian let him develop a prototype and the results convinced Naim that it did indeed represent a big step up in performance.
There’s a single energy path from stylus tip through bearing point which sits in a jewelled cup, through bearing pillar to arm base. The headshell is made very stiff - to the point where the mounts are fixed holes as it was found that slots sounded considerably worse. Alignment was thus optimised for the best cartridge of the time, the Linn Troika, and there was also a third mounting point to make the most of this. There was no cueing mechanism as anything that could adversely resonate or impair performance was left off. It was truly stripped to the essentials for top performance.
It was introduced in 1989 and was called the ARO, which stood for Analogue Rules OK, and played on the fact that the arm tube was made by a company who made high precision arrow shafts. Each one was hand built by just one or two people and Naim developed a clever way of testing them using an Ortofon cartridge computer to ensure consistency from one arm to the next.
It came packaged with a specially drilled Linn armboard, as most were fitted to the Sondek. However, this was later made an option as the arm found its way onto a number of other decks too. Here you can see it fitted to my own Loricraft Garrard 401 with a custom arm base machined just for the ARO.
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Thanks Richard, that is very interesting.
Very nice👍🏻
Didn’t have time to level the Linn this weekend and just had a go at it… that starrett is very sensitive to the slightest adjustment, and a bit temperature sensitive too… I had it level yesterday, but it was very warm then. It has cooled down a bit now and it seems to need a little adjusting again…
Gave it (the leveling) a rest for today and will have another go tomorrow… did however manage to level my other spirits using the starrett…
The Odyssey goes on😊
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It is intriguing me, how do you level a level to check that it is actually reading correctly?
Richard
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I’ve got a slab of marble which is flat on all sides. You get that as level as can be and then you turn the screws on the starrett until you have the same small difference on one side when you turn it around our your get it completely level on both sides: I got it with the smallest of not level on the same degree when turning it 180 degrees.
I’ve done practically the same with a piece of sellotape under wooden project level-it.
And… I’ve finally got my Linn as level as can be… Took a long time because the wooden box is not completely 100% level, but the difference is negligible.
So finally got that piece of the work done. Need to put her back on her spot and level her there. But I cannot do any more than I have done…
Listening session will follow and I’ll report back.
Hi,
Thanks for the info.
So it I assume it must be important to get that slab of marble as level as possible in the first place so as to use it as a reference for adjusting the spirit level.
Richard
Which iron do you use to press your vinyl before playing? I favour a Phillips steam plus (no water conditioners of course!), whilst others prefer the purer approach of anvil fired cast iron.
Yep… it took me a while and the slightest movement, especially tradition of the stone on the floor, is immediately detected by the starrett level… nearly made me more crazy than I already am😜
I got mine from a mason and actually use it to put very fine diamond sandpaper on it to do some work on straight razors before I put them on very fine stones for polishing…
Listening to some records now and am pretty pleased with the result (thankfully). Haven’t fidled about with the azimuth yet… bias is set as per Mark Dunn’s advice above…
Don’t really think I need a lot of tweaking, if any at all.
Pieper,
The easiest way to see what azimuth changes will bring is to set the outrigger weight as precisely as you can and then use small pieces of blu-tak on either side of the bearing cup and listen for changes. Then when you’re happy, set the outrigger weight to get the same azimuth.
Fiddling with the outrigger in very small increments is difficult and small changes can make a big difference.
Regards,
Mark Dunn
Thank you for the advice. I’ll have to c of my mum’s got some blutack at home… I’m not sure they sell it here in Germany🙂
(Just ordered it on Amazon… I love buying there. No need to go out the house, you can order any time of the day and delivery is, usually, fast👍🏻)
I was actually hoping to get a weight from Tiger Paw for the Aro… that can be offset a bit: so I could get rid of the azimuth weight. But Roger hasn’t responded to any of my mails yet… somebody here told me he was not doing all too well… I’ll have to try to get in touch with him again, seeing as I have already paid for the weight…
Hi Pieper,
I have a Tiger Paw Skale on my ARO and it is an obvious improvement over both the standard and heavy original counterweights that I’ve used with my DV XV-1s. However, it is a major endeavour to get both the azimuth and tracking force set correctly at the same time with the Skale. Changing one effects the other.
Regards,
Mark Dunn