Home brew titanium ARO

Respect to that man!

Respect indeed! It looks very nice.

If it sound's as good as it looks it should be quite something?

Very nice!

Looks great. Fantastic work

Stunning looking replica. I wonder how the measurable parameters compare with the Aro....the amount of damping, Q-factor, resonance points etc all play a critical role in how it performs. Of course unless you are in the machining industry, this option probably would cost many more times of what a second-hand Aro goes for. The stripped down 'naked' finish is also a change from the matt black. Oddly enough, the black Ittocks were better than the silver ones, and maybe now the silver Aro's are better than the black ones. 

Very impressive work Markyleo!

Thanks for all the +ve feedback. As Ron has pointed out I had no idea about how the titanium modulus would alter the resonance characteristics but as I work in a university I may look into the possibility of measuring this. Not sure I have properly dressed the arm wiring or if this is interfering in the movement. The bearing configuration has been replicated as best I could.

Time to set up a comparison with a regular ARO!

Amazing  job !

Any chance to build it in small batches ?

Regards

Roberto

A superb job. In many ways the Aro was my favourite Naim creation. Congratulations on what looks like an excellent replica. Perhaps you should consider building a small batch on a commercial basis.

Anyone know how Naim would react to even cottage scale production? Not an easy job using the manual lathe and milling machine I used - particularly the head shell. I did think I wouldn't be able to replicate the head, particularly in titanium and I did ask Naim if they could sell me one from their spares - not available apparently. Why did Naim stop production? Any good machine shop could make the components.

Naim stopped production because nobody was buying them. As to how they would react, only they can tell you. 

markyleo posted:

Anyone know how Naim would react to even cottage scale production? Not an easy job using the manual lathe and milling machine I used - particularly the head shell. I did think I wouldn't be able to replicate the head, particularly in titanium and I did ask Naim if they could sell me one from their spares - not available apparently. Why did Naim stop production? Any good machine shop could make the components.

But not necessarily as a viable commercial enterprise. Could be the answer to your question.

Brilliant effort though.

Hungryhalibut posted:

Naim stopped production because nobody was buying them. As to how they would react, only they can tell you. 

They stopped production because they ran out of a key part, and the minimum quantity reorder for the part was deemed to be way too high.

At least thats what Dougy told me.

They sold some 1200 of them during its life, and it was still selling. I recently gave cymbiosis a brand new aro top kit to locate to a new home. Rare as rocking horse droppings.

OK. It was still selling but in insufficient quantities to justify restocking - I heard less than one a month. The idea of making arms from arrow shafts is rather lovely. I loved mine, on an Armageddoned LP12 it was super, though scary to use after too much wine. 

Mine still in regular use

lp12/Harban/keel/aro/xv1s

markyleo posted:

... certainly seems as good as my 25 year old Ekos.

The advertising profession seems safe

A gorgeous looking job, thank you.

Chris

An outstanding job, and titainium makes it very interesting. Wonder if naim would have gone down this path if they wanted to improve on the design. Notice the arm board plug has also been made by yourself, were did you source the wiring loom from? I remember Kuma saying that this arm board plug was no longer available.

Mario.

I ' ve been  told that Naim stopped production beacause  the technician involved with it  has retired.

Regards

Roberto

I think it was a combination of factors. The demand, while reasonably steady, wasn't great. Only small numbers of parts were needed at any one time so weren't that interesting to suppliers. And with sometimes years gaps between orders, you'd suddenly find a supplier had closed shop, so then you would have to go through the process of finding a new supplier. 

For many years it had been one person building the Aro - Clive - and he was brilliant at it, knew it back to front, and so consistency was really good from arm to arm. It would take a long time for someone new to get as good. So I guess that with his retirement it seemed like the right time to stop Aro production. 

As for this homage to the Aro, I think it looks fab and hopefully sounds good too. However, please could members be mindful of forum rules and also respect that it is still Naims design. Any potential commercial discussion is not on. Thanks. 

It really wouldn't be that hard for naim to bring back the ARO. I wish they would just bring back one thing out of the many that people ask for. The ARO is still arguably the best tone arm ever made, even though not all vinyl fans get it. I ran an Ekos for years then bang, discovered the magic of an ARO. So simple, so direct to the music so elegantly simple and cleverly conceived.  

Thing is that vinyl has now really picked up and production stopped when the interest in records was still relatively low. I'm sure it would be embraced quite well now, even to new vinyl fans.

If an individual can make such a good replica, there is obviously real demand by those who demand the best and naim's manufacturing ability has far more capacity than a very determined individual!

Mario.

Mario.

I reckon they'd sell loads of them if they made a turntable to put it on. What was that about Naim being mechanical engineers? 

Fully appreciate that the design belongs to Naim so this will remain a one-off. I think the point about the revival of vinyl should make Naim think about a relaunch - clearly has a strong following which is an interesting part of the Naim legacy. I would love the job of building these.

As for the miniature connector it as an adapted RS plug & socket. It is a 5 pin snap-lock pair which had a fairy ugly plastic top which I replaced with an aluminium cap. The wiring is just Cardas litz which I'm not 100% about in terms is flexibility. 

Brilliant work MarkyLeo. A homage to a golden era including the Aro and modular pre-amps like the 72.

Agree with ChrisSU this could be sold to a wider audience with a turntable rather than as a separate arm.

No expert but thought the pillar / bearing was critical to the Aro so what have you done in that regard MarkyLeo?

By successfully decoupling the arm from the rest of the turntable perhaps the original Aro's bearing / pillar assembly negated the need for the LP12 parts sold by Linn and others to stiffen the chassis etc?