The £2000 Aro has landed

The new arm from Tiger Paw should be rather interesting too.

The beauty of the Aro, one of them anyway, is that there are no parts that suffer dramatically from wear and tear. As long as the owner pays some respect , the arm will last a lifetime. Sure, a rewire may be needed at some point but that's about it.  The Aro is a classic and at 2000 clams it is still a bargain imo. Jonny's arm has been out for a while and is pig ugly compared to the Aro- how many Aro owners have made the switch? I will be interested in seeing the Titan though

ATB,

Mark

 

Not when Jonny 7 is making a nice new unipivot that is so highly rated

Is it still being made? Only the PU7 shows up on their website.

I hadn't heard of the demise of Jonny s unipivot ...but it's possible...thou I suspect due to the nature of his business model..he could always make them to demand!

The tiger paw arm is one to look out for too ..if Rogers other products are anything to go by !

And of course You're right..there is little to wear out on an aro ...but a rewire is not easy at all ..due in part to the sealed on plugs at the wire ends

I just think that if someone took my aro away and stuffed £2k in my hand ..I would probably not buy another aro ( if I had to spend the whole wad on one arm)

I bought a Uniarm last summer and it's lovely. I was lucky enough to get one of the first "mark 2" arms with a more rounded headshell. I doubt he's stopped making them having invested in the retooling.

No mention of this on his website, or anywhere else that I could find! The website is a bit of a shambles to be honest. I can only assume that's a deliberate thing to keep his workload manageable. 

????

Looking closely at the picture I see the bolt in the bottom of the swivel bearing upstand is over half unscrewed

This must mean that either some or all of the silicone fluid in there has leaked out / been removed

Now I wonder why anyone would be playing about taking that bolt out unless they didn't know what they were doing when removing the arm from the deck?

There is also a 2mm ballbearing behind that bolt that is very easy to loose if your not careful / don't know it's there...

On the plus side the (one) silver paint contact point that I can see looks nice and full of paint ... I think I'm a bit OCD for details....so sorry

I bought one of the last Aro’s in 2007 previous that an Ittok since they came out 1980? In that time I owned three of them due to bearing failure but the last Ittok I had foe over 20 years.

when I went from the Ittok to the Aro it was a night and day difference it was so much more dynamic and I then changed the Lingo mk 1 for an Armeggedon another game changer.

 I would never sell the Aro I think the reason it works so well on the LP 12 is that's it so much lighter than the Linn arms so the turntable to me is more balanced. That’s my opinion, I will never sell mine, I can’t see for the life of me how so much interest in the TPA arm is being generated when no one has heard or seen one. 

Regards,

Martin

I found a brand new Aro, sealed in box at a Naim dealer in 2015. It was one of the last few made in 2010. I had to pay a fair bit more than the price you're seeing on eBay. But I wouldn't have been comfortable buying a secondhand tonearm, so had to pay the price being asked by the dealer. Still, there were only something like 1,200 of them made, so needs must...

You were lucky indeed to find a new old stock arm that late on

I wonder if there are many more hidden away in collections and as "spares" that have yet to come to light

Ultimately the price is set by demand ...but I can see the eBay one being sold to an offer rather than the optimistic asking price

james n posted:

The new arm from Tiger Paw should be rather interesting too.

I've seen the new TIger Paw  unipivot and it's a lovely looking arm

It looks like its loosely based on the ARO but different and more up to date tech bias and titanium arm tube also has a arm lift and rest built on the back.

It does sound better than the ARO and Linn Ekos SE.

Ive a hunch it's going to be a big seller at £1800.

The ARO is iconic and scarce. It is not surprising prices have gotten so dear. 

Just got one. It sounds great. Such flow of music. I use a simple Linn adikt with a Lejonklou Gaio. A great combo for the price.

Why isn't Naim bringing these back?   At least in a limited run.    All the Naim dealers I know are vinyl people already.  Seems obvious.

Trevor was asked about the Aro just last week.  He replied that demand was so low and parts procurement so fraught with difficulty - that while the demise of the Aro was regrettable, there wasn't much choice.  I recall Paul Stephenson asking the dealers around the world for numbers of how many they would take so he could decide whether to make more.  The response was nowhere near enough. Interestingly, Trevor seemed to imply that he would only consider bringing it back if it was part of a complete vinyl front end from Naim that performed in keeping with the company's values.  Which I guess leaves the door open just a crack.  But I wouldn't hold your breath waiting...

Richard Dane posted:

 Interestingly, Trevor seemed to imply that he would only consider bringing it back if it was part of a complete vinyl front end from Naim that performed in keeping with the company's values.  Which I guess leaves the door open just a crack.  But I wouldn't hold your breath waiting...

Rega Naiad mechanics, Naim electronics for motor control and phono stage.  A Statement level TT ?

That could be interesting...  

Richard Dane posted:

Trevor was asked about the Aro just last week.  He replied that demand was so low and parts procurement so fraught with difficulty - that while the demise of the Aro was regrettable, there wasn't much choice.  I recall Paul Stephenson asking the dealers around the world for numbers of how many they would take so he could decide whether to make more.  The response was nowhere near enough. Interestingly, Trevor seemed to imply that he would only consider bringing it back if it was part of a complete vinyl front end from Naim that performed in keeping with the company's values.  Which I guess leaves the door open just a crack.  But I wouldn't hold your breath waiting...

I believe he mentioned 1000 off would be an economic minimum. I'd be interested to know how many had been made up until production stopped. 

Well Clive B mentioned 1200 earlier in the thread, if that’s the case, never going to happen?

Fred11 posted:

Just got one. It sounds great. Such flow of music. I use a simple Linn adikt with a Lejonklou Gaio. A great combo for the price.

Looks like a reality nice set up ..well.done

Just one though...that azimuth weight looks a long way out on its mount ...I've not seen one needing to be anywhere near that far out before?

Thank you! 

And Thank you for the tip. I was told it was supposed to be one stripe per gram of pressure from the inside. With the adikt it is about 2 gram. This might is wrong? 

Regards Fred

On my Aro the Azimuth is set on the middle groove of the stem my cartridge is a Kiseki Blue NS and was set up. By Derek Jenkins, it works for me.

 Regards,

Martin

This was the purpose of the mirror supplied with the Aro. However, it’s not really necessary on the LP12 since you can use the platter without the mat to give an adequately reflective surface. I think you just lower the stylus onto the platter and by viewing head on to the cartridge adjust the azimuth setting to ensure the bottom of the cartridge is parallel with the platter (don’t do this while the stylus is on the platter!). With the curved underside of the Adikt you might need to view the head shell instead. I’d be very surprised if the weight ended up very far off the inner stop. 

The one stripe per gram probably relates to the position of the anti skating fishing line. Yours looks about right. 

Yes I believe you are muddling anti skate with azimuth

The azimuth weight is used to ensure the stylus is vertical in the record grove

The stylus is generally assumed to be parallel with the cartridge bottom / top ( but may not be if the cantilever is bent / badly made)

You could try the following simple method

Put a straight wooden coffee stirring stick equally across the head shell and lower the cartridge gently onto a mirror or old record ( with out the record turning!!)

Look at the stick and make sure it is at equal high at each end above the record...using the weight to adjust this...then fine tune from there by ear ( by playing records with the stick removed !!)

Dear all! 
I am confusing anti-skate and azimuth. The seller was very competent, so it would be strange if he did not get this right. I used the thing with the boble inside to adjust the azimuth. Actually I had not seen the azimuth weight before now! I have a Tiger paw Skale and have adjusted the whole arm to be exactly level when on the record. So I have compensated with the Skale for the far placement to the left on the azimuth weight. I will readjust the whole thing now. 
Thank you very much!

Fred

Japtimscarlet posted:

Yes I believe you are muddling anti skate with azimuth

The azimuth weight is used to ensure the stylus is vertical in the record grove

The stylus is generally assumed to be parallel with the cartridge bottom / top ( but may not be if the cantilever is bent / badly made)

You could try the following simple method

Put a straight wooden coffee stirring stick equally across the head shell and lower the cartridge gently onto a mirror or old record ( with out the record turning!!)

Look at the stick and make sure it is at equal high at each end above the record...using the weight to adjust this...then fine tune from there by ear ( by playing records with the stick removed !!)

When you say fine-tune by ear, does this mean there should be some weight leaning inwards? If I get it level then, the small weight should be all the way in? And then moved slightly out, from what sounds best?
Fred

Noe it is level, but I still have not understood if the Wright should lean slightly to the right. Is it due to g-force?