RB250 Just fitted
Posted by: i am simon 2 on 01 October 2003
After the old Acos arm died on my Planar three, I bought a new RB250. ( I am told this is better than the 300 once I have finished with the upgrades from OL - oh and its about £60 cheaper).
Wow what an improvment this small outlay makes, the new arm makes my old P3 sound like a grown up turntable. Much better traking and a serious improvment in spatial information , a much more open and acurate sound is also achieved.
I plan to do the structural mod at X-mas time, and then the wiring later next year, by the time I have finished, it should be an arm I can stick with for a while and move on to a better deck one day.
In the meantime I have a question.
There is no earth lead on the arm, unlike the old Acos arm.
Do I need an earth?
All help would be appreciated.
Regards
Simon
Wow what an improvment this small outlay makes, the new arm makes my old P3 sound like a grown up turntable. Much better traking and a serious improvment in spatial information , a much more open and acurate sound is also achieved.
I plan to do the structural mod at X-mas time, and then the wiring later next year, by the time I have finished, it should be an arm I can stick with for a while and move on to a better deck one day.
In the meantime I have a question.
There is no earth lead on the arm, unlike the old Acos arm.
Do I need an earth?
All help would be appreciated.
Regards
Simon
Posted on: 01 October 2003 by garyi
No there is not an earth lead on the 250.
Posted on: 01 October 2003 by domfjbrown
It earths through the left channel...
Let me know how the mods go - I have a NAD 533 (and a "real" Rega Planar 3) and am curious to know how big an improvement the better weight etc are to the RB250. BTW - it probably sounds "better" after mods over the RB300 as it doesn't use a spring to set downforce - if you disable that on the RB300 by using the counterweight (with downforce set to 0) it *should* wipe the floor with the RB250. Pity my Ortofon 540 is too light for me to test this on my Planar 3 though...
Oh well - at least I got myself a flutterbuster - time for some fun tonight (if I don't blow the Rega up!)...
I wander what those Ebay acrylic platters are like - tempted to use one instead of the wooden platter on the NAD... He he he...
Make your choice, adventurous Stranger;
Strike the bell and bide the danger
Or wonder, till it drives you mad,
What would have followed if you had.
Let me know how the mods go - I have a NAD 533 (and a "real" Rega Planar 3) and am curious to know how big an improvement the better weight etc are to the RB250. BTW - it probably sounds "better" after mods over the RB300 as it doesn't use a spring to set downforce - if you disable that on the RB300 by using the counterweight (with downforce set to 0) it *should* wipe the floor with the RB250. Pity my Ortofon 540 is too light for me to test this on my Planar 3 though...
Oh well - at least I got myself a flutterbuster - time for some fun tonight (if I don't blow the Rega up!)...
I wander what those Ebay acrylic platters are like - tempted to use one instead of the wooden platter on the NAD... He he he...
Make your choice, adventurous Stranger;
Strike the bell and bide the danger
Or wonder, till it drives you mad,
What would have followed if you had.
Posted on: 01 October 2003 by i am simon 2
As and when I do the mods I will post the results.
Thnaks for the clarafication on the earth.
Does anyone know how much of an improvment the new rigid mounted motor that rega do is?
Also has anyone ever used the OL motor and power supply ubgrade on the rega decks?
Simon
Thnaks for the clarafication on the earth.
Does anyone know how much of an improvment the new rigid mounted motor that rega do is?
Also has anyone ever used the OL motor and power supply ubgrade on the rega decks?
Simon
Posted on: 01 October 2003 by Rick Weldon
domfjbrown C S Lewis fan?
Posted on: 01 October 2003 by NealG
The OL rewire addresses the earth problem with a seperate wire. IME the counter weight mod is very worthwhile as is the internal rewire. The external rewire is no so marked.
Posted on: 02 October 2003 by i am simon 2
Ian
I believe that the R200 is the Acos Lustre arm, which is the silver s-shaped arm with detachable headshell.
The geomatry of the new arm is the same with regard to the mounting and yes, it is simply a case of undoing the nut at the bottom of the the arm and threding the cable through the whole.
The new arm RB250 or 300 goes back in the same place. The only thing to note, that I found was that the hole is slightly larger than the arm mount, but this is the same for the Acos arm, and on my deck, the nut for the acos arm has a short sleve that faces upwards that makes the arm fit snugly in the hole, so I used the old nut on the new arm, the new nut that comes with the arm does not have this, but I supose that this could be used in addition to the old nut as a locking nut (although I have not done this).
I can recomend the RB250 as an improvment, although this is an improvment over my Acos arm which was a little bit dubiouds towards the end as the anti skate spring had broken.
I am sure a dealer would let you have money back if the upgrade was not to your liking. Alternativly Origin Live also sell the RB250 albeit rebadged as the OL1, and I think they do money back.
One thing that I noticed was that in order to align the cartride in the new arm, acording to the set-up protractor supplied with the arm, was that the cartridge ( I am using a Rega Super Bias at the moment) has to be quite far back in the headshell, perhpas somone can comment if this is normal.
One other hint was that the cartridge was quite tricky to fit onto the arm once on the deck. Unlike the old arm, you cannot take the headshell off and do it at an easier angle, so it might be worth while fitting the cartridge to the arm prior to fitting the arm to the deck - unless you are more dextrous than me.
I hope thae above is clear and useful.
Regards
Simon
I believe that the R200 is the Acos Lustre arm, which is the silver s-shaped arm with detachable headshell.
The geomatry of the new arm is the same with regard to the mounting and yes, it is simply a case of undoing the nut at the bottom of the the arm and threding the cable through the whole.
The new arm RB250 or 300 goes back in the same place. The only thing to note, that I found was that the hole is slightly larger than the arm mount, but this is the same for the Acos arm, and on my deck, the nut for the acos arm has a short sleve that faces upwards that makes the arm fit snugly in the hole, so I used the old nut on the new arm, the new nut that comes with the arm does not have this, but I supose that this could be used in addition to the old nut as a locking nut (although I have not done this).
I can recomend the RB250 as an improvment, although this is an improvment over my Acos arm which was a little bit dubiouds towards the end as the anti skate spring had broken.
I am sure a dealer would let you have money back if the upgrade was not to your liking. Alternativly Origin Live also sell the RB250 albeit rebadged as the OL1, and I think they do money back.
One thing that I noticed was that in order to align the cartride in the new arm, acording to the set-up protractor supplied with the arm, was that the cartridge ( I am using a Rega Super Bias at the moment) has to be quite far back in the headshell, perhpas somone can comment if this is normal.
One other hint was that the cartridge was quite tricky to fit onto the arm once on the deck. Unlike the old arm, you cannot take the headshell off and do it at an easier angle, so it might be worth while fitting the cartridge to the arm prior to fitting the arm to the deck - unless you are more dextrous than me.
I hope thae above is clear and useful.
Regards
Simon
Posted on: 02 October 2003 by Paul Ranson
quote:
BTW - it probably sounds "better" after mods over the RB300 as it doesn't use a spring to set downforce - if you disable that on the RB300 by using the counterweight (with downforce set to 0) it *should* wipe the floor with the RB250.
I'm having a recollection that this is wrong. The spring pushes up on the arm to set the tracking weight, so that at 0 it is pushing max, and at 3 least.
Could be wrong, but it's a pretty strong recollection. My old RB300 (2 digit serial....) is not here to check with.
Paul
Posted on: 02 October 2003 by Lars
Simon,
I've done the structural mod and it made a big difference. The bass is incredibly tight. I use it on my LP12. I havn't done the rewire, but have had the opportunity to compare a rewired RB250 (internal/external) to the original and it makes a significant improvement. The improvement isn't as big as the structural mod, but it's still worthwhile in my opinion.
/Lars
I've done the structural mod and it made a big difference. The bass is incredibly tight. I use it on my LP12. I havn't done the rewire, but have had the opportunity to compare a rewired RB250 (internal/external) to the original and it makes a significant improvement. The improvement isn't as big as the structural mod, but it's still worthwhile in my opinion.
/Lars
Posted on: 02 October 2003 by NealG
Paul, nothing wrong with your memory. Set at 3 the spring is disengaged.
Posted on: 02 October 2003 by i am simon 2
Ian
I am not famililar with many cartriges myself. I have a goldring 1022 which came with the deck, which has had a new stylus but I gunked it up with cleaner, hence the rega Suber bias I currently use.
Whilst the S-bias is cheaper than the 1022 it does not sound at all bad to my ears.
Obvious choices include the more epensive rega carts.
The only other (affordable)cart that I have heard that impressed me was the High output MC Dynavector (I forget the model number but it is bright red plastic and cost about £200).
Regards
Simon
I am not famililar with many cartriges myself. I have a goldring 1022 which came with the deck, which has had a new stylus but I gunked it up with cleaner, hence the rega Suber bias I currently use.
Whilst the S-bias is cheaper than the 1022 it does not sound at all bad to my ears.
Obvious choices include the more epensive rega carts.
The only other (affordable)cart that I have heard that impressed me was the High output MC Dynavector (I forget the model number but it is bright red plastic and cost about £200).
Regards
Simon