Just love the look of this model by ME! Which tonearm do you have and which cartridge do you use?
Rega Rb330 arm with a benz micro ace sl cartridge. A fairly standard package in the UK.
Some posh turntables in the office systems! By contrast hereâs my Stella (Philips) ST50A in my office system, it feeds my Heathkit S-33H valve amp.
A dealer I used to visit in N London in the early 80s used to sell the Michell Focus with a Mayware arm, brilliant configuration.
Regards,
Lindsay
Nice one Tony. I have no intention of selling mine, quite proud of it really. I want to upgrade it somehow over the coming years but Iâm undecided what way to go.
Michellâs own Focus arm never seemed to be very highly thought of. I never heard one, but I did see one once and it didnât look that inspiring. Focus with the S shaped Linn Basik seemed more common. There was also a Spanish (?) clone of the Focus - âAudio Linearâ or something like that.
I might be wrong, but from memory, I think that the tonearm that was sold with the original Focus might have been the Transcriptors/Michell Vestigial tonearm.
The problem is that at the time of its introduction designers were looking for lighter and lighter tracking weights, although the industry eventually went the other way with much heavier MC cartridges and very much heavier tracking weights.
I believe the Vestigial arm was designed to (allegedly) track at ultra low tracking weights down to 1/10th of a gram. It was thought (incorrectly) at the time that this would lead to lower record wear.
I believe it was even more difficult to set up than the Transcriptors 9" Fluid (Unipivot) arm I had on my old Transcriptors Hydraulic Reference turntable.
The Michell Focus One originally came with its own damped unipivot tonearm. Later it could be bought with armboards suitable for SME or Linn fittings. IIRC, it was the Skeleton and Saturn that came with the Vestigial arm.
Glad to see Iâm not the only Naim user with a scrap of paper showing the source selections scribbled on it!
I have bits of paper, so that if anybody inherits my audio system they donât try the obvious when disassembling /relocating .
You are not alone
You never considered upgrading to the more expensive Tecnoarm? Here in Sweden, my dealer recommends a cartridge from Japanese Hana that is available in different price ranges.
Just for reference my cartridge was about ÂŁ700? Felt about right when compared to the price of the gyro se.
I put the techno weight on my RB1000, so much better.
Tim
It sounds very reasonable with a cost around ÂŁ 700 for a suitable cartrige. Hana cartriges cost from ÂŁ 400 up to ÂŁ 1000 depending on the model, so they also fit well into the price range.
So did I, and I have to agree with you.
MArco
It was the only extra my dealer really pushed.
His " standard" package is the Rb330 from Rega and the Benz Micro ACE sl. And of course Techno weight.
Most people rave about it. All I can say is that my Gyro se with the bits above into my Trichord Diablo phono stage is a great combination and often my first choice source.
Certainly has made me relisten to a lot of older vinyl that I thought was poorly recorded. It wasnât for most of it. A great vinyl source.
Just moved from a LP12 with Ittok that I had since 1989 to a Dr Feickert Blackbird with Reed 1X tone arm. Cartridge is Ortofon 2M Black. Sounds wonderful and way way better than the LP12. Need to consider new cartridge. Any suggestions?
No suggestions. Fine looking TT though
If the Arm wand gives a high effective mass, 18g or higher consider an SPU Royal N. I replaced a Transfiguration Proteus with one and havenât missed it. They love a high torque deck and seem to be at home on a wooden arm wand (though mine came from Schröder). On a superline use 220Ω loading. Youâll need the heaviest counterweight.