Greetings, advise?

[Moth R. Superior]

Hey fellow AKer's, I've come to you once again for advice.
I have the opportunity to purchase an AR XA with the original box, pretty minty shape.
I have searched on line for the Mayware Formula 4, MKIII tone arm, but to no avail. Needless to say I have interest in upgrading not only the tonearm, but the entire table.
Could someone point me in the right direction to find one of these tone arm's?
I am also open to other alternatives.
Thanks in advance!!
-Mike

 

[revox-b77]

I am confused, does it come with the Maywere arm or you want to mount one to the AR table?

 

[bang4buck]

A lot of people put the Mayware arm on the AR XA back in the day. "Everybody knew" that the original tonearm was a weak point of the design. The Mayware was easily available, cheap, had the proper dimensions and weight to work, and only required modest modifications to the XA.

Things have changed. Our own @marcmorin offers a set of affordable upgrades that address a few issues with the original design, and from what people report here on AK, I'd say it easily outperforms the Mayware. (My own XA is stock.) On the other hand, the Mayware was designed for the high compliance cartridges of the time, which isn't a good thing as those have mostly disappeared from the scene.

There were a number of iterations of the Formula arm (in fact, the Mayware was an unauthorized but successful copy of the original design by JH in Australia) and they do show up on ebay etc. fairly regularly. But unless you want one for the look, or for an existing vintage cartridge, I see no real reason to convert an XA today.

 

[Moth R. Superior]

Wow. I'm glad I asked!!!
Thanks for your insight, I'll look him up.

 

[bobins08]

Listen to it stock for awhile. Then ask Marc about an upgraded arm and I think you will notice a major upgrade in SQ. You will still have to live with no adjustable VTA, no adjustable anti-skate, and the plastic box head shells with the potential nib issues.

I had Marc give me an arm wand with a SME headshell collet so that I can get away from the AR headshells. This arm is compatible with many cartridges.

I do not miss anti skate adjustments and this does not impact tracking or sound. I do miss being able to fine adjust VTA - I use mat thickness or shims between the headshell and cartridge.

Marc can take this table from good to excellent.

 

[Moth R. Superior]

YES! This is exactly what I was looking for!!!
It sounds like he's got a bunch of upgrades for this table. I am interested in doing most if not all of them.
My tables right now consist of a Pioneer PL41, a Goldrig GR1, and a Technics 1400. I've been looking to get a table I can "trick" out.

 

[bang4buck]

The headshell situation has improved a lot. You can put the original one away for the collector value and use modern reproductions, each set up with proper shims and weight for the cartridge you're using. They're even available in various colors, if you need that bit of mango to really tie the room together.

 

[Nat]

As a fan of the Formula IVs and owner of a couple, I disagree with some of what has been posted. The original JH version of the Formula IV was designed for high compliance cartridges, but all the Maywares had variable mass - the tracking force was set by moving a mass up the arm, which automatically increased arm mass as the tracking force increased (and made it easy to increase effective mass more, if desired). The first Maywares were not exactly substantially built, but the later models had thicker arm tubes and heavier cast headshells, and were sold by Mayware matched with their fine medium compliance moving coils. So the Mark III the OP mentioned would be a fine match for most cartridges.
I have also owned multiple XAs, and agree that the arm is surprisingly good, given its simplicity, or even on an absolute basis. I don't think that replacing it with most arms makes much sense since the dramatically different mass of the new arm will alter the dynamics of the suspension significantly, and that change may be more consequential than the improvement in the arm. Having said that, the AR arm has limited antiskating, provided by twisting the wires, the headshells are easily damaged and not cheaply replaced, and setting tracking force and aligning the cartridge is not exactly ergonomic. And there is no doubt many will disparage the tonearm wires, but I don't see any real reason to think replacement is necessary unless there is a specific problem.
Marc Morin (and any others) make it possible to upgrade AR arms by providing sapphire bearings, which I don't doubt are a real step up from the nylon originals, but the nylon provided some damping, which is part of why the arm sounded good. The Mayware, like most unipivots, allows for variable damping, and that is one of the reasons that people like it.
Any replacement arm requires drilling out the top plate and chassis, so there is a danger of screwing things up, and not everyone wants to tune suspensions, so I generally don't think that changing the arm is a good idea. But if antiskating and damping matter to you (and I think they should) maybe the Mayware is worth the hassle.