Tonearms

If, as LeCorbusier put it, “design is intelligence made visible,” then Roy Gandy, the Rega RB300’s designer, has a few extra brain cells. This tonearm is a seminal design that was initially introduced in the summer of 1983. Its tracking weight spring can be chastised for adding a tinge of hue. The RB250, on the […]

Since its introduction over half a century ago, many hundreds of thousands of Hadcocks have been sold in over a hundred countries, making it one of the most popular tonearms that most audiophiles have never heard of. It’s a traditional unipivot design – indeed, for its fans, it’s the classic unipivot – that predates more

The story begins with the advent of Linn’s Ittok LVII tonearm toward the end of the 1970s. In an analog scene dominated by the SME 3009S2, which existed on practically every turntable motor unit at the time, it put the cat among the pigeons. There was also the Grace G707, which had been Linn’s preferred

The ‘Scale Model Equipment Company Ltd’ was founded in 1946 to produce parts for the model engineering industry, but by the 1950s, it had expanded to include aircraft instruments and commercial machinery. The first ‘precise pick-up arm’ from SME didn’t come until 1959. It was a revelation by agricultural standards of the time, and it

The name SME precedes the brand. Everyone in the audiophile community knows it’s a terrific firm with a fantastic history. Any SME product is guaranteed to be of high quality, and it has never produced a dud. Is that the case? Some people don’t consider the Series III, which was introduced in 1978 and won

In 1986, just as it appeared that vinyl was nearing its end, the SME Series V arrived. The tagline “the best pickup arm in the world” had been used by the Steyning company for a long time, but it had become a bit of a joke. The SME Series III was far from this, and

The Jelco Ichikawa Jewel Company, based in Tokyo’s Ikebukuro area, is one of the country’s many small-scale precision engineering firms. It has been producing since 1920, and by the 1970s, it had naturally shifted its focus to turntable parts in response to the hi-fi craze of the period. Over the years, it has done a

Linn had a problem by 1979, however it was a pleasant thing to have. The problem was that while the £298 Sondek LP12 turntable was flying off the shelves, not everyone could afford the company’s new Ittok LV II tonearm, which retailed for £253. Instead, a major portion of sales went to Rega, whose £46

Tonearm enthusiasts had a fantastic year in 1987. After what seemed like an eternity of waiting, not one, but two – then three – buses arrived at the same moment. The first was the SME Series V, which has gotten a lot of press; many consider it to be “the finest” arm in some ways,

Many consider the Linn Ittok to be the world’s first super-arm. It was designed by a Mr. Ito to Linn’s specifications in the late 1970s and originally built for Linn by the Denon Parts Company of Japan (no related to the electronics brand). It underwent several adjustments over the years, including a new counterbalance, until