Grace F8 retipped - need new TT/tonearm (vintage/new?)

[tannat]

Hi,

I'm not a frequent poster

I've had my old Grace F8 retipped and it's finaly on it's way home. I was going to put it in my rega P7 but I'm thinking of getting a second table for the grace f8.

I was looking at ebay to see if I could pick up a grace tonearm as I thought that they would be good match. However, these seem to be real collectors items nowadays.

Does anyone have any recomendation for any other arm for a grace f8?

I may be able to get hold of an Acos Lustre SG1 though. Is this a good match for the grace f8?

What's the best match - vintage or new? How is it with modern tonearms? I would prefer to have one with replacable headshell. I also would think that my RB700 have too low mass for the f8 that I understand have relatively high compliance?

 

[mfrench]

have you looked into the tonearmaudio.com cherry wood arms?
They're quite affordable. I have two of them, 12" arms, and like them.
They're not easily replaceable headshells, so that might not be the best for you; but nice arms none the less.

 

[jimreeves]

Someone step on me if I'm wrong here, I don't know the F8, but if it's high compliance you'll be best with a low mass arm. Modern RB250, RB300 and similar arms aren't really low mass. A Thorens, Dual, Luxman or similar straight arm vintage japanese turntable will be lower mass. Here's the chart from vinylengine...
http://www.vinylengine.com/cartridg...s.php?m=Grace+F-8E&cm=6.5&dc=20&search=search
Trouble is, most manufacturer's don't tell you the effective mass of the arms that are built-in their turntables. A Grace arm or the Infinity Black Widow might be good choices.

 

[danj]

My retipped Grace F8L is mounted on and works great on an original model Pioneer PL-570.

 

[caddisgeek]

sorry for the thread jack, but where would you reccomend gatting one of these retipped, and what would be the cost?

Cheers
Steve

 

[tannat]

Someone step on me if I'm wrong here, I don't know the F8, but if it's high compliance you'll be best with a low mass arm. Modern RB250, RB300 and similar arms aren't really low mass. A Thorens, Dual, Luxman or similar straight arm vintage japanese turntable will be lower mass. Here's the chart from vinylengine...
http://www.vinylengine.com/cartridg...s.php?m=Grace+F-8E&cm=6.5&dc=20&search=search
Trouble is, most manufacturer's don't tell you the effective mass of the arms that are built-in their turntables. A Grace arm or the Infinity Black Widow might be good choices.

Thanks, this is what I suspected. for tonarm/cartridge matching my p7 is not a good option. While it would be fun to set up an all Japanese DD vintage system, I know I can pick up a dual cs505-4 close by for around 50$. Maybe this is the easiest way to get it up and playing. Maybe I do this while I start investigating the vintage option.

danj:
It's something like this I had in mind. The grace was made with those in mind and those oldies look so good. There are however no available in the vicinity to my knowledge and ebay can be a little risky with turntables. I think I will follow up on this. It will be more of a long time project though.

Steve.

I did mine through Soundsmith.com Soundsmith retip has got great reviews from users of grace f8/f9s. They have three retip alternatives ranging 150-350$ I took the most expensive one. Heck, I've owned this pickup for over 20 years. It would be petty of me to do anythin else.

 

[Balifly]

Grace 707 MKII . :thmbsp:
http://www.vinylengine.com/library/grace/g-707.shtml

 

[tannat]

That's indeed a beautiful tonearm.I'll definitely keep my eyes out for it.

 

[tannat]

Some update on the project:

It's going to be a full vintage Japanese setup.
I bought a Sanyo TP-1000, with the original Acos Lustre arm for the Grace.

This is a quite rare top of the line turntable from 78/79:

It's an impressive beast, if I may say. A description can be found at this excellent site, which I really recommend for those interested in vintage DD turntables:

http://www.dd-turntables.com/gallery1_3.html

I'm really happy with this development. The difference in philosophy behind my other setup, the Rega P7, and this new setup is great. Just as it should.