[sunnydaze]

I built this standalone pod for a 2nd arm on my Scheu.  Not pretty but very solid and functional.  No sonic detriment that I could discern as it sounds at least as good as placing the arm on the table's stock mount.

[JoshK]

looks like it works.   I got a local seller with a Jelco SA-750EB at a discounted price.  Next to look for a Denon

[TomS]

looks like it works.   I got a local seller with a Jelco SA-750EB at a discounted price.  Next to look for a Denon

There is a Morch arm wand on A'gon at the moment.

[JoshK]

It isn't the arm wand that is broken, it is the part the arm wand attaches to that is.

[sunnydaze]

Josh.....PM sent.

[JoshK]

FWIW....

I just thought I'd mention what I ended up doing.   #1 my Moerch is off my Mr. Moerch to get fixed.  It will be mounted in the traditional place using one of my two armboards (I think I have a third undrilled in storage packed probably where my Dynavector 20Xh is packed...need to fish out).   

I sold the Rega and bought a Jelco 750EB as I got a really good deal from the main dealer in Canada that lives close to me.  He also had a lot of experience pairing the Denon 103X cartridge with the Jelcos and gave me pointers and a source for some minor mods that help everything go to another height if wanted.   I grabbed a low hour 103 original cheap and a low hour 103R cheap. 

The Jelco doesn't fit either of my two armboards I have handy, and thus after quite a bit of surfing ended up ordering a custom Armpod ATP-03 from Acoustand.   Reasonable, at least comparably to some other guys that do similar work.   Thus I will be able to have two arms simultaneously and my phono stage accepts both a lomc and mm/homc simultaneously, so when I find my 20Xh, it will go on one of the arms.   It is nice to have two options, one for high quality vinyl and one for unknown quality vinyl, or the second for parties and such.  My phono has a very convenient mute switch for just such things as well.


So for those in the know, is the Moerch considered a lighter tonearm?  I am trying to learn what I need about cart/arm pairing.  Would the Dyn 20X mate with the Moerch well?  I know the Denon is a low compliance cart made during the broadcast era for heavier arms and thus doesn't work quite a well with super light arms, but is also less fussy as well (good for me).   I am not going down the well into uber high end vinyl setups, mine is already more high end than I feel comfortable justifying.   

[sunnydaze]

Josh....

I didn't catch which Moerch model you have.....

In any event, all 3 models can use the same swappable arm wands.   Each wand has a different effective mass, allowing the user to use various carts and move the Resonant Frequency into the acceptable zone.

The heaviest armtube is 14g.  This is considered medium mass.  Using the other tubes will get you into the light mass zone.

Read about it here:

http://www.sorasound.com/products/moerch/

I do know that the unipivot UP-4 allows for silicone dampening at the pivot.  This may allow you to use stiffer / lower compliance carts than you normally could with a medium mass arm.  I don't know if the DP models offer the same dampening.

When I owned the UP-4 I did a bit of research and found widely differing opinions on which wand to use for a specific cart.  There was a website (Moerch?) that had a list of carts and the recommended wand.  It was a bit controversial in that on the audio boards there were many Moerch owners who disagreed with some of the recs.

[JoshK]

I have a DP-6.  I knew a bit about the different arm wands.   Most likely I will keep the Denon on the Jelco and put the Dyn on the Moerch, so I am bit more interested in the pairing of the Moerch and Dyn.

[sunnydaze]

Denon 103 will likely pair better with the Jelco.
On my UP-4 I paired my Dyna 20X with the Red Dot armtube.  Worked fine.

If you check the list I mentioned earlier, Moerch recommends Red wand for the 20X.

Moerch website  ==> click armtubes  ==>  click list of rec'd armtubes

[JoshK]

Getting closer.... very close.

So the arm-pod came today and I am impressed with this shiny brick (weighs quite a bit).  Lots of leveling options and a couple height adjustment options.  Drilled for the Jelco base perfectly.   Has enough heft with the bite of the cones into the wood shelf it ain't moving unless you basically pick it up and move it. 

My Moerch tonearm arrived at Mr. Moerch's winter residence in California for repair, so hopefully we'll have some good news before too long on that front.  [still can't find where I packed my Dyn DV-20XH]

Two issues to solve before I start spinning.  1)  my tonearm cable is a bit too stiff to insert into the arm-pod without creasing it by my estimation.   I needed another tonearm cable when the Moerch comes back, so my current one will work with the cantilevered arm-board and I'll grab a more flexible cable set for the arm-pod.  2) ran out of outlets in my Furman conditioner, need to do a little house keeping to free up an outlet, minor but somewhat annoying.   

Actually there is a minor issue 3) in that my phono stage have 4 switches, 4 tube sockets and two inputs and nothing is labeled.   I traced the circuit mostly to figure out which set of RCAs were for MM and which for MC.   Traced which switch was for MM/MC and which switch is for stepup (10X/20X).   The other two switches are for Mute and Mono/Stereo but I didn't determine which was which.   I also don't know which position is which for any of the above but process of elimination should lead to a solution.  I emailed DIYHiFiSupply and got no answer, nor an response on their forum board. 

[JoshK]

In non-related news, my Synology DS1815+ quit powering on.  Came home and it was off and wouldn't power on, as in nothing was happening at all.   Did a google search because I was stressed I'd loose data (huge music collection ripped and not all of it is backed up...I know, I know).   Well it turns out that it is/was a common problem in the xx15 series.  I emailed Synology support and they immediately responded that they would replace my unit and gave me directions to make sure migration of my data would go seamless and provided two options for replacement.   I chose the advanced RMA which meant I provided my CC for a new unit and returned mine without waiting for mine to arrive to them, but no charge if they receive mine within 35 days.   So I posted mine to them (they provided the UPS label pre-paid) and today I got the new unit.   I followed the instructions and within 15 minutes time my NAS was back up like before (now to finish backing it up). 

Working with Synology was a very good experience.   Now I can stream to my Directstream DAC again.

[sunnydaze]

Looks really nice Josh!     

And I really like your rack.  DIY?  If so how'd you do it?
If not, link to mfr?

[JoshK]

Its a Canadian company based in Montreal iirc.

https://solidrack.ca/

[JoshK]

more updates....

First the good news:

1)  Mr. Moerch called me a told me he fixed my DP6 and it is on its way back to me.

2)  I was able to setup the Jelco on the armpod with ease.  It has been close to a decade since I set up an arm and cart, but I took my time and used my tools and it was straight forward.

The bad news:

1) still haven't located my Dynavector DV20Xh  (I have it but it is buried in my storage somewhere when I moved).

2) I played a record and things don't sound good at all.  It is very noisey and very upper mid/high focused...no bass.   The level is also quite low.  Something is quite off.

I calculated the output voltage level given the 68db gain and 0.25mv of the cart and that brings me to 0.63V or thereabouts.  My DS Dac in SE mode is 1.414V with the volume all the way up.  So that is ~8db difference, ok, but doesn't seem to account for the wide difference.   I tested both inputs on the phono and the MM/MC switch and it seemed like it wasn't doing much of anything at all.  The gain position of 10X or 20X on the stepup when the input was in the MC input did make a difference.  The mute button and mono/stereo I don't know which is which but neither did a damn thing.   I emailed Thorsten Loesch and I didn't get any answer with repeated emails to the manufacturer.  Then I did get an automatic reply the last time I sent that they were on vacation.  So we shall see what I can find.

I emailed a local buddy and he said he will loan me his EAR 834p for a week to test if it is the phono or maybe my used Denon 103R is the problem.  I'm guessing the prior, but we shall see.

[JoshK]

Got the table spinning LPs and figured my phono stage out.   I am pretty stoked to spin LPs for the first time is maybe a decade.