Kenwood kd500 with a infinity black widow tonearm

[Vintagecasey]

I'm looking to purchase a Kenwood KD 500 turntable with an infinity Black widow graphite tonearm. Anything I should be looking at in particular before I purchase this? Thanks for your input.

 

[Westy56]

The BW is the best arm I've used. I found one with a denon103d on a denon TT and gladly paid 250.

 

[Fishead]

Hey @Westy56, fellow New Mexican!!! I'm up here in Farmington. I was a little surprised to hear a Denon 103d on an Infinity Black Widow arm whose effective mass is around 3gr. The 103d has a compliance of 5 x 10-6 cm/dyne, so very low compliance. Did you use them together or did you just find them together on the Denon turntable that you purchased?

 

[Westy56]

Hey @Westy56, fellow New Mexican!!! I'm up here in Farmington. I was a little surprised to hear a Denon 103d on an Infinity Black Widow arm whose effective mass is around 3gr. The 103d has a compliance of 5 x 10-6 cm/dyne, so very low compliance. Did you use them together or did you just find them together on the Denon turntable that you purchased?

Wow, I got a great deal. I forgot about the SUT. My finders post from way back.

I found a Denon DP-1250 with cone feet, Denon center weight, Black Widow arm (with damping trough), DL-103D cart, and a AU-310 SUT for $200 on craislist.

I went with a 150mlx with excellent results.

 

[Blue Shadow]

The BW was available in numerous versions. First, fragile, avoid it, stepped aluminum arm tube, then stepped CF, finally tapered CF and a damping trough added.

The KD, hinges, hope they work and dust cover is intact. Speed accuracy can have dirty pots causing issues, one aker replaced a speed pot cause cleaning didn’t work.

Kit deserves a very nice cartridge, not the cheapest thing you can find.

 

[Blue Shadow]

@Westy56 some akers would be going nuts seeing the table rotated in the base to allow the arm to be used, if they weren’t thrown off by the raised platter with balancing marks shown. OCD runs strong here.