Harmon Kardan T65c Turntable

I spoke with Mike at VPI about a new arm for my HW19 MK.IV. Mine is also Piano Black finish. Mike told me that these tables were among the best they ever built, and reason for discontinuing, was that they were just too expensive to make. He said Id be better off keeping the springs, and not using the sorbothane pucks. He said the sound is just too good this way. But he did say that to put a JMW 10.5i Tonearm, along with new armboard would be $2100.00 and if I went with a B Stock arm, it would be more like $1300.00, but Im pretty im pressed with the ZETA arm, and cant afford that kind of change at this point in my life. Ray

The Zeta arm you have is one of the all time best. I would keep ot. To do better will be very expensive. A friend of mine has just picked up Alphason tone arm he no longer wants. Will look at that one in a few days. Back in the day was highly rated.

Yep I did away with the sorbothane pucks as well. The MKIV just sounds better with the springs.

But a new tonearm for me is still sometime next year.

Yes Ferrari,
The Alphason HRS100MC is the Titanium arm from Alphason in the 1980's. It is one hell of an arm as well. I believe it is 10.5 gram effective mass, so will work with alot of cartridges out there, and the armtube is filled with a foam substance to remove some resonance. It was a highly rated arm , in the days of the ZETA as well. Youd just need an armboard, unless your current armboard is a Linn mount pattern, both Alphason and ZETA are Linn Mount patterns, I think AUdioquest is as well, so you wouldn't even need a new armboard. Ray

Wouldn't you know it, here a few days later have had to press the T55C into service. Tonearm on the VPI needs a rewire service. Sounds damn good with the old Grado on it, not in VPI territory, but very good.

Ferrari,
I have been reading many good things about this series of Harmon Kardan Turntables on a forum called the VinylCircle. There are several mods, and several users of these tables, they seem to have a very good reputation. No wonder it sounds so good. Ray