[Mister Pig]

New table is set to arrive today, and I still haven't sorted out the tonearm issue. I have owned an ET II in the past, and would consider buying another once a suitable one pops up on the used market.

However, I spend an evening looking at the Advanced Analog MG-1 arm, and it looks to be nicely constructed. I also looked at the Cantus Opus 3 arm, and to be frank, the Mg-1 appears to be as well, if not better built.

What I cannot see is inside the manifold, and how air is distributed through it. The manufacturer claims that the arm does not need much pressure, it really is spec'd quite low. Which makes it easier to find a good quality diaphragm pump. All in all, the arm seems to be a nice balance between cost, build quality, and sensible engineering.

What I need to know from any MG-1 owners, is does the arm accept a low compliance moving coil? I use an Accuphase AC1 that has been refurbished by Expert Stylus. So the suspension is stiff, and the mass of the arm tube on the MG-1 looks to be low. Anyone running a similar type cartridge on their arm?

Regards
Mister Pig

[doctorcilantro]

What is the compliance listed? I see 15mm....etc. The weight is a bit over 9 grams?

I'm pretty sure the effective vertical mass WITHOUT cart is 6.5g, with my Grado added that makes it about 14g and this was bore out by looking at FFT of test record recordings. Then I thought the lateral effective mass of this setup must be at least double that, and Ada Lin responded it was 28g (+ est. 7.5g for Grado and trappings), but this could be w/o counterweight???

The online calculators aren't supposed to be very accurate but I have found them quite the contrary. Once you get the true compliance maybe you'll have a better idea. If it were 10cu, you'd be up around 12hz at least, I think.

You can buy my Grado Reference when Grado repairs or replaces it, works great!

[*Scotty*]

I have used a Gast DAA-P103-EB on my Maplenoll Ariadne TT for the last 11 years. My tonearm has a bigger gap between the manifold and the arm tube than the MG-1 arm. My arm also has high lateral mass which can be a problem if the record has a hole that is off-center by any great amount. The MG-1 has very low lateral mass by comparison and I would say that it should be a simple matter to adjust the resonant frequency by adding mass to the cartridge to place the vertical resonance exactly where you want it. If you had a high compliance cartridge you could be faced with trying lower the mass of the tonearm cartridge system which would be make hitting the proper resonant frequency much more difficult.
   The tolerance between the arm tube and the manifold determines the amount of pressure you need to generate a stiff bearing which will give you maximum information retrieval and the best bass. I hope to retro-fit my Maplenoll with the MG-1 next year. You should by able to outfit your MG-1 with a Gast based air supply for less than the $1200 asked by Advanced Analog if you are handy with tools. If you are interested in picking up a Gast pressure pump I can PM you with information about the company I dealt with when I bought mine.
Scotty

[doctorcilantro]

I'm on the fence about selling my MG1 to be honest. I really like it, and the thing that spurred it is the outer ring from TTWeights which is hard to use as the base sits too close to the platter. It can probably be done be extended the wand etc. but now I'm possibly going another route.

Two days ago, never would have thought about letting it go. It really is very well designed. You have the caliper for recording your on the fly VTA. The azimuth has no fine screw adjustment, but you just "do it by hand" with twisting the wand. I find leveling very easy and you just use an Allen wrench to tweak the three adjustable spiked feet. It also has the new carbon fiber upgrades so all the non-wand parts are now CF. If either of you are interested please PM. I have the expensive pump he sells, damping trough, 2 tonearms (one is upgraded version), and a very nice ballast tank.

[marknoir]

I have used my MG-1 for a few years, with an inexpensive Alita pump. I have tried many cartridges on it form a high compliance AT33PTG, to stiff as a nail Koetsus and Shelters. It worked absolutely fine with all of them, and sounded very good. Just my 5 cents...

[doctorcilantro]

A member on Lenco Heaven forum has compared, and still owns Rockport, MG1, and Trans-Fi Terminator.

You know I tested the MG-1 against a Schroeder DPS on the same TT and the MG-1 was better. However the T3pro comes into a different league when its is used with the Tomahawk ie short wand and it something I knew about a while back while developing the wands with Vic.

http://www.lencoheaven.net/forum/index.php?topic=2805.75

the MG1 is no slouch, especially at the price.