Sgt Shultz
Addicted Member
Definitely the KD-550 OEM arm.
The Official Kenwood KD 500/550 and 600/650 Owner's Thread
Definitely the KD-550 OEM arm.
efhjr
Can you be more specific?
Thanks! Now if I could only find a template for that arm. So far, no luck.
Blue Shadow
Waiting for Vintage Gear from this century
Don’t need template, need distance from spindle to center of the mounting hole which someone with a 550 arm board and 500/550 could supply. I’d have to check to see if I have a 550 board I could mount and measure. Maybe a weekend project, but for sure a new thread request so folks can see it.
Not knowing if the pivot is centered in the arm board hole, can’t say just use pivot to spindle distance.
Not knowing if the pivot is centered in the arm board hole, can’t say just use pivot to spindle distance.
Hello. I have a Kd650 and the cuing arm seems to lower faster than it feels it should. If it is up it stays up but you lower it there seems to be no damping. Any help is appreciated.
Hi all. Just picked this up and starting a refurb. I’ve done one 550 and two 500s. Hope to get this back to glory
Some questions:
1. does anyone have or know where to get some hinges for the KD-650/600 dust cover (see photo)
2. The speed control is crazy fast at 33 and 45 and the off button is not working. Don’t know if anyone has solved this on the board to help shortcut the process
3. I used Amberclens previously which was great but can remove labels. What do people use to clean?
Attachments
While continuing my research on the characteristics of the original tonearm for the KD-650 I found this image on a forum. I hope it helps some of you.
Here is a weblink for more informations about tonearm /cartridge compatibility
https://www.gcaudio.com/tips-tricks/tonearm-cartridge-compatability/
Here is a weblink for more informations about tonearm /cartridge compatibility
https://www.gcaudio.com/tips-tricks/tonearm-cartridge-compatability/
wenfet
New Member
Recent purchase of a Kenwood KD-500, bought a Grace G707 arm for it, using an Ortofon Quintet Blue MC cartridge, sounding very nice. Replaced a modified Rega Planar 2 with a RB 250 arm and same cartridge, very happy with the change.
Attachments
Great looking deck in good shape and your hinges work! Lucky you. I have that arm and a SME for my 500. The grace really sings with a low mass, high compliance cart. Try a grace or a shure v15iii (with a jico stylus) and it will really sing!
wenfet
New Member
@Ecjenkins , have been using MC cartridges for over 40 years, hard to go back, i have a Garrott P77 with new stylus, good , but......
Wenfet has copius precedent for using an MC in the Grace 707. The Linn became a cult table (PRAT, etc) about the same time that moving coils started displacing very high compliance cartridges in the the audiophile wish list. The standard of excellence in arms at the time, the SME Series II, was low mass and had knife edge bearings, so wasn't a great choice with the low compliance Supexes, etc. that were suddenly the British audiophile press's darlings. The Grace 707 was widely available arm and had reasonably good gimble bearings that didn't rattle like knife edges are alleged to, so despite its low mass (and perhaps because it had a plastic headshell and so was somewhat self damping), it was the go to match for MCs until the Swiss (I think) Breuer arm appeared, which had first rate, and expensive, bearings. (Given the propensity of the time for using allen wrenches to tighten the cartridge mounting bolts, there was a fair amount of discussion of bearings that needed to be replaced, which may be why
If you want to read gushing testimonials to the liquidity, palpability, sonorousness, or whatever of the Grace with MCs, just look at British magazines of the late 70s, though avoid Gramophone and HiFi News and Record Review - they hadn't drunk the Kool Aid, though HFN&RR caved after a while (or maybe the moving coils and the associated arms actually caught up to the low mass/high compliance pairings - though if price was taken into account they never did).
If you want to read gushing testimonials to the liquidity, palpability, sonorousness, or whatever of the Grace with MCs, just look at British magazines of the late 70s, though avoid Gramophone and HiFi News and Record Review - they hadn't drunk the Kool Aid, though HFN&RR caved after a while (or maybe the moving coils and the associated arms actually caught up to the low mass/high compliance pairings - though if price was taken into account they never did).
wenfet
New Member
Had a Linn Sondek in the '70s with a Grace707 and a Sonus Blue, very nice, but changed arm to a Mission 774 with an Ortofon SPU Classic N, big upgrade, the Linn fell victim to cost of living many years ago. Now with the Kenwood will never go back to a suspended table, end game!
Blue Shadow
Waiting for Vintage Gear from this century
I mentioned a 500 rejoining my fleet and well it is set up now, been using it for some time. Same setup as the KD-600 at the moment. It will change.
KD-500--Magnepan Unitrac I--Ortofon MC30 Super using the Kenwood supplied armboard/SME cutout. Magnepan supplied large washers just for this purpose to span the opening in that armboard cutout. And since I have those washers it was an easy choice to use them instead of make yet another armboard. A project for another day.
This table does not have the original platter mat but a decent substitute. Might use the one from a KD-750 I have somewhere.
Note SME cutout and homemade VTA adjusting tool, heavy cartridge (azimuth weights well out on the balance arm and additional counterweight.
The KD-600 similarly outfitted:
Those looking at these two setups carefully will notice a difference in location of the azimuth weights, toward the end of the rod on the KD-500 and in the middle of the rod on the 600. Better pictures would show that the 600 has three weights and the 500 is only sporting two. In both cases the arm rides with the needle vertically aligned in the groove.
KD-500--Magnepan Unitrac I--Ortofon MC30 Super using the Kenwood supplied armboard/SME cutout. Magnepan supplied large washers just for this purpose to span the opening in that armboard cutout. And since I have those washers it was an easy choice to use them instead of make yet another armboard. A project for another day.
This table does not have the original platter mat but a decent substitute. Might use the one from a KD-750 I have somewhere.
Note SME cutout and homemade VTA adjusting tool, heavy cartridge (azimuth weights well out on the balance arm and additional counterweight.
The KD-600 similarly outfitted:
Those looking at these two setups carefully will notice a difference in location of the azimuth weights, toward the end of the rod on the KD-500 and in the middle of the rod on the 600. Better pictures would show that the 600 has three weights and the 500 is only sporting two. In both cases the arm rides with the needle vertically aligned in the groove.
I picked up KD-600 that I’m looking to restore. I don’t have all that much knowledge of turntables, as I’ve only got into vintage audio about a year and a half ago.
I want to learn more about the arm that I will need to service and setup. Does anyone know what it is? I haven’t found anything on it other than four numbers “9869”, shown in one of the pics.
I want to learn more about the arm that I will need to service and setup. Does anyone know what it is? I haven’t found anything on it other than four numbers “9869”, shown in one of the pics.
