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Is the Acoustic Research Ax Ta ecc Really an overrated Poor mans Turntable?

Is the AR turntable the most overrated budget turntable? Because it was cheap basic and had the famous pre thorens/lynn drive? 
vinny55
pryso
1,501 posts
 
bdp, I think the Mayware Formula 4 was a popular replacement for the standard AR arm.  Likely because it was also light weight (no impact on the suspension if done properly) and a good performer.

I changed to that arm too with the help of a buddy with access to a machine shop.  He was able to modify the T-bar for the Mayware arm and punch a larger hole in the steel top plate.  It looked like a factory installation when he finished.
vinny55 OP
162 posts
 
Compared to the beefier made thorens linns garrards its very rudimentary.
People praising it because it was cheap not because it was of great sonics
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
4,908 posts
 

@pryso, I too had a machine shop do the actual cutting of the subchassis, removing the AR arms bearing well and leaving a hole just the right size for the Mayware. I then took a file and enlarged the hole in the tables top plate, to accommodate the different length of the arm. I little dark brown paint on the exposed aluminum of the plate, and it looked factory! The Mayware was a much better arm than the AR, and corrected the only serious flaw in the XA table.

I had earlier had first a Thorens TD-125 MK.2, which I had nothing but trouble with. It’s electronics were too complicated, and trouble-prone. I replaced it with a TD-150, which was about equal with the AR XA, but had a pretty good arm, much better than that of the XA. About then the Linn showed up, then the Oracle, then the VPI. The era of really good turntables had begun (ignoring the now-resurging Thorens TD-124 and Garrard idler-wheel tables, which I am too young to at the time have known about).

lewm
6,770 posts
 
bdp, Your story is interesting to me.  I would have said that the TD125 came way after the AR XA and was much much better, although not without its own warts.  I guess this tells us that I am older than you. I owned both, at different historical timepoints in my own evolution, or devolution.  I think it went AR first of all, then Transcriptors Reference, then TD125, then etc. Because of the long production run enjoyed by the AR XA, it could be placed differently according to the age range of the audiophile, kind of like the Highlander of turntables.
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
4,908 posts
 
I can see why my post was confusing Lew. The AR XA I modified was not my first, it was one I got in the 80’s. I got my first AR new in ’69, then the Thorens TD-125 in ’72 (with an SME 3009 Mk.2 Improved mounted on it). I sold the 125 and replaced it with the simpler TD-150, which I had for quite a while. I was out of hi-fi for a while, and then as I said got the second (used) AR in the mid-80’s, modifying it for the Mayware arm. I then replaced it with the reissue AR ES-1 and a Rega 300, which I had until I got myself a VPI HW-19 in the very early-90’s. The VPI sold me on high mass turntable design---Eric.
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