Tone arm question

Been very happy with the OL Encounter.It is the least expensive to offer VTA adjustment w/o using spacers.

Dear Mwilliams: Which cartridge do you own?

regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

I am happy to answer the actual question that you asked. In normal use, tonearms do not wear out, however the bearings are quite fragile on some models and mounting cartridges without removing these tonearms from the turntable can cause Brinelling (flat spotting) of the tonearm bearings due to the tortional forces applied by tightening the mounting screws. Once flat spotted the bearings will have to be replaced. Some arms also have fragile tonarm wire that can be problematic as it ages or is stressed. One of my arms is almost 60 years old and works quite well, so I think that most vintage arms should be fine.

At this point I have not purchased a cartridge for the 160. My intergrated bryston B100 has a MM stage built in so for now i am staying with a MM cartridge. I hope to upgrade later. Most of my funds at this moment are for the listening room I am builbing.

Thanks Viridian
That was the answer i was looking for. It seems to be a good move to buy a used tonearm. Even if you do not need a top of the line arm you can afford one. The higher end arms are a lot easier to tweak than new ones for the same money