Which tonearm should I keep?

>>The Hadcock is a low mass arm IIRC and is supposed to be an excellent match for the Music Maker, which makes sense because the two are made by the same manufacturer.<<

Let's clear up some bad information here.

The Hadcock effective mass is about 10 grams which is actually intermediate using the writer's own criteria.

Secondly, the Music Maker is built by Leonard Gregory, aka The Cartridge Man.

Hadcock tonearms are owned and built by Charles Hadcock who assumed the duties when the founder, George his father, passed away a couple years ago.

The companies are two separate and distinct entitites.

Dealer disclaimer

Dear Nandric: Do you use/know in deep ( sometime/overtime ) that Technics tonearm?

well, I still own it and comparing with the FR's/Hadcock IMHO the Technics is a better choice.
If you never try it my advise is that the next time you see it buy it, you will be surprised how high quality performance show against other top tonearms either vintage or today ones.

The EPA-500 was designed/build on the Technics " golden years " along the EPA-100 and EPA-100MK2 ( as the TT SP-10's ), I admire FR but the Technics on those " days " build a " little " better products, at least is what I already experienced with all those products.

Anyway mine is only an additional opinion and of course like always our preferences are system/ears/own-priorities dependent.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

"The companies are two separate and distinct entitites"

This is not a totally true statement, as Leonard Gregory has "exclusive" marketing rights to the Hadcock company.
There is no other "contact" for Hadcock, and to add even more information, the modern design improvements of the Hadcock tonearms were done by Leonard Gregory, which is how he got the exclusive rights.

Dear Raul,
I owned EPA 100 and knew that Tech.500 (from 1969)
was an 'low mass arm' ,designed for MM carts. But
because I have seen your name I checked the issue
(Googel: Technics tonearms,vintage data). Both of
the Richs armtubes have an eff.mass of 8 gr. and recom.
carts are from 5-7 gr. There is an 'S shaped tube' also
but because Rich intention is to sell and not to bay
tonarms or tubes I deed not checked this tube.
I respect your opinion as I stated but I have my own
preferences. I owned more then 10 and own at the moment:
Triplanar VII,an new 12" from Lithvania,Lustre 801 and
Fr-24/MkII. I have also a long experience with FR-64s
then in comb.with Ortofon MC30. This 'combo' got 90 mi-
crons without 'buzzing' from 'HIFI TEST RECORD'. There
is of course no need for such 'performance' but I got
this result from no ather combination. It seems to me
that this is in any case an indication of the quality
of FR-64 S. I belive that I need no advice about the
tonearms.

Cheers

To answer Bill Feil's email that he just sent to me (which should have been stated here, and not only to me)
As Bill states in the email:

"They are 2 separate companies. That is a true statement"

They are not separate, as, Mr.Hadcock CANNOT sell his own tonearm himself, only Mr. Gregory can sell the Hadcock tonearm...
For customer service, Mr. Hadcock does not and cannot be reached for customer service, only Mr. Gregory takes care of that.
Mr. Hadcock and Mr. Gregory are virtual "siamese twins" as Mr. Hadcock cannot operate without Mr. Gregory.
Maybe Mr. Gregory and you would like to "pretend" there is not financial tie between Hadcock tonearm and Cartridgeman cartridges (as especially in the past) as all advertising and reviews lead the buyer to believe that these companies are completely seperate.. but, that is not the case at all.
Just thought this should be openly posted, and not in an email.

Rick