The arm has fixed bolt holes and was designed for a Troika that had a stylus to bolt distance of 7 mm I think . New cartridge specs don’t mention this . Does this make a difference I would have thought it was quite important to have the right geometry.
A few carts have the same stylus to mount hole distance - Dynavector DV17 for example - but the LP12 arm board can usually be persuaded to give a bit more accommodation. Having said that, I’ve run all sorts of carts in the Aro and they’ve mostly worked well. The Loricraft arm board on my Garrard can be moved to aid alignment.
I have the Linn Krystal cartridge on my ARO and it’s magnificent
Lyra phono carts and the Aro match well. I prefer the SL low output models.
7.5mm.
Kandid. Krystal. Older Linn MCs. DL-103s. That’s it.
Plenty run other cartridges, though, and I did when I had an Aro (though the Kandid was the one that lasted the longest).
I have used a DV TK Rua and an XV-1t. These are both quite large carts and benefit from the larger counter weight being fitted to the arm. They both sound fab.
Peter
Hi all thanks for all the info and ideas I have gone eventually for a Denon DL-103 . Maybe the law of diminishing returns! The rest of my kit is a pair of Tannoy Westminster’s and some pretty esoteric amps , a Russell Technologies phono amp and power amp and a Toe passive preamp which should be able to resolve any differences upstream , the passive preamp has been the one thing that has stood out over time in making the biggest difference . Thanks again .
The DL-103 works quite nicely in the Aro. However, it does some things very well, and others not so well. It gives a very “widescreen” presentation, with deep bass. However, it can lack some speed and fine detail resolution, and is also not at its best on inner grooves and on shallow or tightly packed LP cuts. Of course, for the money, it’s pretty remarkable, but you never quite forget that it’s an inexpensive cartridge with compromises. The good news is that many of those compromises can be overcome. Removing the plastic body and either re-bodying or just running nude with an alloy mount is very worthwhile. However, if you do this the Stylus will eventually frustrate, so getting an ESCO re-tip is very worthwhile. Of course, this does increase the cost considerably, so…
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I’ve had great success with a Lyra Kelos Sl with 9.5mm bolt to tip. I was advice by a number people in the industry that the Aro is somewhat forgiving and all will be fine, and it is. I know that cart is another level of $$$ but still don’t get to hung up about it. That’s my takeaway for my recent experience.
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