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Views on Mayware Formula 4 tonearm

doctor fuse

doctor fuse

Super Member
Hi,

There is a Thorens TD 160 for sale for a not-too-bad price. It looks like it sports a Mayware Formula 4 tonearm from the online photo.

Could anyone out there give me an idea how this arm compares with the stock TP16 arm on a 160? What is a good price for this arm?

Looking forward to all your words of wisdom.
 
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The Mayware is an excellent arm, I would expect a good chunk better than the Thorens arm, though as very low mass you'd need an appropriate cartridge. There are several arms made from the same design, so it may not actually be a Mayware, but if it is I think it's the best of the bunch.
 
even though the mayware had the sliding weight on the arm tube, it still prefers a cart with high, to very high compliance. hard to give a head-to-head evaluation of it without putting a particular cart into the evaluation. The mayware is a fine arm......with the caveat.
 
Saw your post at Vinyl Engine and answered it there. But a very nice sounding, adaptable, and nicely made arm. But some people get the heebie jeebies because of the tilting when you use the finger lift. Not an issue when its actually playing records, but if you are one of those people who are bugged by it, it's not the arm for you.
 
Nat said:
But some people get the heebie jeebies because of the tilting when you use the finger lift.
Click to expand...

And that is with a damped unipivot. The undamped unipivots like the Magnepan Unitrac I are all over the place, easy. No problem here, been using it since 1980. I sometimes wonder why some arms are so fixed in place with their gimbal or other lateral and vertical bearings.
 
I have the Mayware tonearm on my Denon TT it is paired with a Ortofon MC cart. It sounds great and is a very easy setup to use and also looks great. Good Luck
 
I have a Mayware Formula 4 in use on an AR turntable. It is a really nice arm and I like it a lot, but it is a bit more complicated to set up than the average bear. You really need to balance the arm carefully in all dimensions for best performance. The back weight has an eccentric hole that needs to be rotated and adjusted to make the arm balance perfectly and not roll on either side.

I have a Shure V15VxMR on mine.
 
The Mayware was on a KD-500 I had. Nice arm. My first unipivot. I still don't know what happened to that table. I miss it.
 
Blue Shadow said:
And that is with a damped unipivot. The undamped unipivots like the Magnepan Unitrac I are all over the place, easy. No problem here, been using it since 1980. I sometimes wonder why some arms are so fixed in place with their gimbal or other lateral and vertical bearings.
Click to expand...
Stability.
 
Depends on how stable the floor is, the Uni was a fine arm, regardless.
The Souther LT that replaced it was more tolerant of such things.
 
Mine wobbles all over the place if there is dancing in the room. It sits on a TD-125 replacing the SME 3009 that was on the table. The other one is on a KD-600, it doesn't move.
 
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