The ARO has been heavily criticised and even dismissed over the years by some people for the fact that it was designed around the Troika and so using any other cartridge (bar the Dyn 17D or Karat) meant that getting alignment spot on was basically impossible without 3rd party solutions*, or (heaven forbid) cutting slots in the headshell.
The ARO2 does have slots in the headshell, so getting alignment right for different cartridges should be much easier. Of course, only having the one counterweight does mean that lighter weight carts might be a problem, which I can see might well be an issue.
*I use one of mine on a custom armboard that does allow for alignment, but I had to have it made specially. But that’s all part of the fun of vinyl playback.
Correct. And now that I’ve swapped in my old SuperLine, it plays music better than “perfectly well!”
I’ve not “changed” anything else other than to add a nice acrylic dust cover that a few of the other Solstice owners in the States have too.
It’s a very musical bit of hardware and to my ears preferred over the Rega P10/Aphelion 2 combo it replaced.
I absolutely was drawn to the Solstice as a “package” due to my experience with 2 Rega tables and the fact that the cartridge comes in a package. I’m too ham-handed to be fitting cartridges. Hearing others contemplate cartridge “upgrades” certainly piqued my interest, but I’d have the local experienced hi fi turntable guy do the fitting.
No heresay. No hyperbole. The facts are what they are.
Re Aro1 when money was tight i even used it with a blue point special and a rega super elys. The former wasn’t bad; the latter not so hot. But really lets go through the list…lyra delos and kleos and even some of the more expensive ones, dyna 20 (i used this one…good balue/dollar), xx-2, tkr, and with the heavier counterweight some of the bigger ones, linn troika, karma, krystal (i use this now), and other linns too, and the list goes on. These are just the ones i have seen used or used myself, there are probably more. Thats a very wide range of compatibility.
I cant wrap my head around a power supply “upgrade” for the motor. Phono stage; of course. (I had sold off my SuperCap and bought another when I re-dedicated to the SuperLine.)
But a PS upgrade for the motor??? (I know…and I don’t doubt your findings. I have “no room on the Fraim” for it and that’s my story!).
The solstice is sold as a package with the Equinox cartridge included. It’s not available without the Equinox, so chances are most users are using that and haven’t tried other carts yet, or perhaps see no need to do so. Yes, one or two here have likely done so, including Cohen1263’s well documented reports on the forum about using his Solstice with the Dynavector DV XV1T. But right now I’d wager that most owners are using the Solstice as a package, hence any reports of Solstice users using other cartridges will be very few and far between.
As an old school Roksan owner I went through 2 generations of power supply on my TMS and a couple of years ago Touraj fitted the Vertere SG power supply for me. I understand the feeling that it shouldn’t make a difference, I share it, but it does.
Richard hence my comment re Equinox availability. If Naim prefers to address this issue by clarifying it is like a Rega - you can experiment all you want but it is intended for Rega carts then fine. It is in this case the solstice is really only intended for the equinox and anything beside that you are on your own. With Rega though you have no real risk…those carts are official products on a price list and availability is not an issue. With the Equinox…?
Those disc magnets cost less than the price of a CD though and take a few seconds to fit