I was lucky enough to find a second ARO while I was looking for a used Troika.
Colin Lacey at What You See And Hear in Beaconsfield had a refurbished ARO, rewired by Linn (not Naim), and also had a broken Troika, which I am about to send to Goldring for a complete rebuild.
All this was brought on by by getting a NAIT50, and needing a decent source.
Peter Swain will be supplying an LP12 with a lovely Simon Price cherrywood plinth.
I have a (new and unused)) pair of Falcon cherrywood LS3/5As to complete what I hope will be a very special ‘second’ system. All that’s lacking now is an MC step up transformer for the cartridge into the NAIT50.
If you’re a DJ yes, it’s vital for cueing. If not, it’s quite pointless. But it’s not in the signal path so I can forgive it. Besides, visually it gives the warm and fuzzies.
It’s a 12" arm which is not all that uncommon on higher end turntables (Clearaudio, VPI, etc). The platter is standard diameter for playing regular LPs. As @frenchrooster noted, it has an outer ring for clamping records down to the platter, and that’s what makes it appear to have a larger diameter.
A 16" transcription disc won’t play on this turntable for the simple reason that it won’t fit. The tonearms are in the way for anything that large diameter.
Yes I’m glad I managed to pick it up for a reasonable price. I have the mk1 with mk2 arm. The new MG1 with the tempo motor drive is well out of my budget but I’m very happy with the mk1. It sounds amazing