Tonearm/Cartridge matching.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

The R200 is exactly the same fit and geometry as the RB250, but just about twice as good an arm, which showed what Rega knew about anything - nowt, how can a company replace something good with something crap and get away with it, answer because of magazine and retail shop knob heads. No matter what DSJR for all his mates (see last sentence) cajoling and nagging him say Rega are not much better now. ANYTHING they make can be outperformed at the price and it can be proved = bake-off.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from ... 0&_sacat=0

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

A lot of the knob heads get the name wrong as well. R200 - R = Rega 200 one of the dimensions, RB250 - RB = Rega British, to show it is made here, the R200 is made in Japan. The 250 and 300 onward are meaningless numbers apart from for identification. So it is worth searching RB200 as well.

[Simon Hickie]

The R200 was based on the Acos Lustre GST-1.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

No it wasn't, the Acos Lustre was just another arm that got to use similar parts. In Japan back then (and probably now) there was a parts catalogue, you just mixed this arm tube with that bearing etc, that is what Rega did and Linn and others after them. The Nearest arm out there to the R200 is the arm fitted to the Pioneer PL71, yes even the big companies in Japan joined in and used each others expertise in product design. The PL71 is the same as the R200 apart from two things 1/ it doesn't have the rubber band bias set, it has a more normal spring one 2/ the bearing was a higher quality select. Rega did this themselves, recently their better arms in the RB serious are just selected bearings and better selected finish. Bearings are not all identical and they have production variation. There is even a codification for it referencing tolerance. This applies to ALL bearings.

http://www.skf.com/uk/products/bearings ... index.html

BEARING CLASSES BY STANDARD
ANSI ISO 492 DIN 620
ABEC 1 Class Normal P0
ABEC 3 Class 6 P6
ABEC 5 Class 5 P5
ABEC 7 Class 4 P4
ABEC 9 Class 2 P2

[antonio66]

The R200 is exactly the same fit and geometry as the RB250, but just about twice as good an arm, which showed what Rega knew about anything - nowt, how can a company replace something good with something crap and get away with it, answer because of magazine and retail shop knob heads. No matter what DSJR for all his mates (see last sentence) cajoling and nagging him say Rega are not much better now. ANYTHING they make can be outperformed at the price and it can be proved = bake-off.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from ... 0&_sacat=0

I had seen this and another one on ebay. My worry would be it would need an arm re-wire adding to the cost. My RB250 has already been sent to J7 for check and arm re-wire and also has an improved stub/counterweight.

[Simon Hickie]

Thanks for the background Doc - more complicated than I realised. I used to have a GST-1 too. I seem to recall that bearing friction was a little on the high side for that arm. Any views on the arm on the Pioneer PL-640 and of the TT itself? And would it be an improvement on my inherited Project 0.5?

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Why would it need an arm rewire, this is just another load of forum bollocks. It doesn't NEED it, my arm in my PL71 hasn't been rewired and I run a Ortofon SPU Gold, a well over £1000 MC cart on it and it sings as many have heard. I have owned at least 3 R200's and sold them on (I was collecting bargain arms at one stage) and the internal cable is the same as on the PL71.

Mend something when it is broken, you are falling for the "it needs service" bullshit again. Where do you change the oil and the spark plugs

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Thanks for the background Doc - more complicated than I realised. I used to have a GST-1 too. I seem to recall that bearing friction was a little on the high side for that arm. Any views on the arm on the Pioneer PL-640 and of the TT itself? And would it be an improvement on my inherited Project 0.5?

Sorry no experience of that one, it is after the era of the ones I like, without the quartz lock, using a flip flop circuit instead. Pioneer produced a lot of cheap crap the same as all Japanese companies - the skill is to find the gems within the crap. Only way to try is buy bargains try them and keep or sell on. There are at least 100 different Pioneer direct drive turntables. The best way I have found to judge potential ability is with weight, if it is heavy it is likely good, light will be a cheap plastic crap one.

Then there are all the other Japanese manufacturers, remember the name on it doesn't mean who made it (they all worked together = Japan Inc), they all had some gems.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Service = working fine and I want to keep it that way - this is the bullshit!!!!!!!!!!

Repair = not working fine so it needs it - this is not bullshit.

[antonio66]

Well the arm re-wire certainly improved the sound of my RB250. I will seriously consider putting in a bid for the R200. It would still leave me needing a cartridge though, and possibly a new headshell.