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Buying a tonearm...9 inch or 10?

ODYOFAEL

ODYOFAEL

The Voice of Vintage HiFi
Will there be a sonic improvement with that one inch difference?
I'm ready to buy a Jelco SA-750 and will be used on a VPI HW-19 mkII. I wish the 12 would fit. Anyone here have any experience with the 9 and 10 inch JELCO 750? Your feedback would help me make my decision.
Also, has anybody here tried fitting a 12 incher on a VPI HW 19?

TIA
 
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Its not so much the length as it is the quality of the length. Sounds like we are talking about something other than tone arms. I would much prefer a 10" if all other parameters are the same. Wouldn't you rather have a 9 " MK V SME than say a Empire or Rek-o-kut tone arm. I would. Give me a Graham tone arm. But if push comes to shove, I'll take a linear tracking tone arm any day. No inner groove issues, not need of bias compensation, etc etc etc.
 
We're talking, as a friend would say, about fractions of a percent of f*** all. But they count, and it's nice to have a longer-than-standard tonearm. I have a Jelco 12 incher.

Go for the 10.
 
On the other hand, a longer arm means a more severe operation on the wallet.
If the increased cost isn't an issue, and you are using moderate or low compliance cartridges, than longer is better. But a cheap cartridge playing fewer records on a less good table may not sound as good as a better cartridge, more records, or a better turntable, even if there is a little more tracking distortion.
And if you are interested in high compliance cartridges, then there is a distinct advantage to shorter arms which have lower mass. There aren't a whole lot of high compliance cartridges out there any more, but it's a thought.
 
You will also need a new arm board and drill it for a 10" arm, then the fact if the table has room for a 10" arm, there might be fit issues under the arm board, the plinth, spring suspension points and so forth.
 
As I recall 10.5" is the point where you get the lowest tracking error percentage relative to increased length. 12" is lower, but then you add more mass and possible resonance issues with the longer length, and gain minimal tracking error improvements.

I don't think I have seen a 12" arm on a VPI 19 mounted on the stock arm board. The frame just does not allow for the extra length, and who knows what a flying arm board would do to the compression rate of the springs, and how hard it would be to get it to be balanced out and properly tuned. I wouldn't go over a 10" arm on that table myself.

Regards
Mister Pig
 
Thanks to all. The Jelco 750E (Bronze) has shipped from Hong Kong. You can't really beat the $497 price with FREE shipping. I am very excited to hear the difference between the Well-Tempered arm and the 10 inch Jelco.:beerchug:

Ill post pictures of the setup soon.
 
The 10 inch Jelco is the way to go. I've never been a fan of curved tonearms until I got one. It's super adjustable, sounds great, has a removable head shell. It's my new favorite.
 
I have a 10" Pioneer arm from the 70s and found it was an improvement over a shorter arm. It's no longer mounted but will be as soon as I can find a likely candidate for it.

The biggest problem I had with that arm was finding the correct DIN cable for it. I had mounted it on a TD165 and got lucky as I got the position right the first time. After all these years I finally learned that "measure twice, cut once" applies to turntable mods as well.
 
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