RB250/300 mods

[Richard]

Has anyone direct exp of making changes to these arms and the result?

There seem to be one or 2 suppliers offering 2 main mods in slightly different flavours.

I've read the magazines but with the exception of a DP review they mostly listen to the arm as it arrives. What I'd like to hear about is from users with a standard arm who then fitted a mod and had a listen. I'm trying to put the changes in relative terms and would really trust you guys in the real world to tell me how you heard it.

(I should say my judgement is already coloured but I'm trying to give it another go. I had an RB300 when they first came out and didn't like it - very grey - but it was on a Planar 3 which may not have worked well in my room with bassy speakers.)

First mod is the metal end stub with rigidly fixed counterweight - usually OL or Michel - but some brass ones and some eccentriccounterweights around from others.

Second is a re-wire, either Incognito/cardas end to end thin stuff or OL arm and lead separately. Or your own exp with litz etc.

Thanks for info, suggestions, other mods, inc different arms. Budget is flexible, I'm looking for ideas.

Rich

[Dik Dolan]

My brother has an RB300 on his Garrard 401 that I have modded a little.
The Biggest single improvement was fitting the Michell Technoweight. It gave a much more solid and dynamic sound, bass especially. Years ago I tried making my own rega weight stub using brass tubing and a big grub screw to clamp the weight.. it didnt do much at all, the Michell weight does.
I also rewired my old arm with very thin enamelled copper wire, which did seem to remove some of the greyness. I no longer use a rega arm, so I'm not up to date on which cables are recommended as "the best".

[david counter]

Hi Richard

I had a 250 which I have to admit in standard form was a bit lifeless, I fitted the incognito loom which was an improvement and Pebbles counterweight which was a further improvement, the Pebbles is not available anymore but the Michell techno weight has great reviews and is probably the market leader ,

I don't agree with DP that modified it is a giant killer, it makes it a good arm but there are better ones out there for not a lot more money than the modified 250

[soulminer]

Hi Rich.

I had a Rega RB600 that I owned from new and re-wired with an Incognito rewire kit. That was the only modification I ever did to the arm, but it was an obvious difference. It made a fairly unremarkable arm into a half decent arm. I don't think you will ever get away from that "grey", mechanical and sometimes drab Rega family sound, but modifying these already "quite good" arms can make a difference IMO.

Now the 600 already has an advantage over the 250/300 in the form of better wiring (ha.. that's a laugh), metal counter weight stub, better bearings (allegedly - how would one ever know??) and a smaller, tungsten counterweight. In my opinion though, the Incognito rewire, which is really easy to do and took me about 45 minutes, added more detail and focus to the sound. It improved clarity and certainly seemed to add more "sparkle" to the highs. Bass was improved too but more than anything I noticed was an improvement in lack of background hash. It seemed a lot quieter after fitting. Maybe this was in part, due to the removal of half a dozen solder joints and better shielding/earthing. The original Klotz wiring (that's meant to be so much better than standard RB300 wiring- yeah right) was quite poor in comparison with the Cardas of the Incognito kit and there were of course no solder joints any more except for RCAs and cart tags at either end.

Well worth doing IMO. I also experimented with the "full VTF" mod, where you dial in full VTF which disengages the springs and use the counter weight to balance the cart. Couldn't tell any difference at all personally. I also thought that the anti-skate on these arms is a pile of 5hit and blame it for ruining the suspension of at least one really good cartridge before I noticed. That was using the Rega recommended AS force of the equivalent of the VTF. This is rubbish IMHO and with later carts I never used anything above about 0.5 - 1g AS, tuning by ear.

I have no idea about counterweight mods though.

HTH.

Cheers

[david counter]

you're right Lee
I'd quite forgotten about the rubbish magnetic bias, I ruined 2 cartridges with it,

also I don't agree with Rega's lack of VTA adjustment, I had an Incognito adjuster on mine, as I understand it the latest arms now have a 3 point fixing so you have to use spacers which is really a pain to keep changing until you get the right VTA,

[soulminer]

Oh yes... I had forgotten about the VTA adjuster and knurled locking nut I bought. Indeed... they are good additions too.

[Gerry]

Richard
I've done a few mods to mine over the years, rewired & counter weight.
like Lee, I'm not convinced of the jump in price for the higher spec'd ones.

Here is a website dedicated to mods that can be done:

http://www.william-reed.net/audio/rega1.html

[Phil Y]

Hello Richard,
I have had an RB250 fitted to a Pink Triangle LPT from new and had the Origin Live counterweight mod done after a couple of years. For me it was a very big improvement. I had read about the "grey sounding" Rega arm but did not appreciate what this meant until i had the mod fitted. The first time i dropped the needle in the grove after the mod, i thought the arm had gone massively bright. After about 30 seconds i realised it was just that there was such a big jump in detail and life i had been a bit taken aback. For me it was well worth the money. I have recently been considering getting a wiring mod so this thread is interesting for me too.

Cheers, Phil

[Greg.]

Hi Richard,

I've had a standard 300 and O/L 250 and Michell 250. Difficult for me to be objective because they were all used on different tables. Certainly the basic 300 can sound grey, but in my case I fitted it to a seriously tweaked Thorens TD150 and even this grey arm sang in the circumstances. My parents have used it for the last ten odd years and now, with their passing, my brother is going to happily inherit it. My overall impression is that the Michell recipe is the best. I used a full O/L converted 250 on my Michell Gyro-Orbe which I later replaced with the Michell TecnoArm recipe. IMHO this is better overall. If you've got a basic arm, I'd invest in a Michell counter weight kit and do your own rewire with some quality wire with also good stuff coming out of the arm base for phono plug in. Actually, if you read up on O/L and other places it's not that difficult. Certainly you can get a basic grey arm to sparkle with relatively little outlay in terms of performance gained. One thing to think seriously about is arm tube damping. Michell drill holes in the underside to change the resonant frequency so it naturally rings at a much higher frequency and then introduce foam into the tube to damp that ringing. I know O/L now cut slots in the underside of the arm but I'm not sure what they do beyond that. I visited the Michell factory a whlie ago and they demonstrated the difference in tube ringing between the standard and their mod. Certainly what they had done seriously damped any arm resonance.......even enough to upset any average campanologist Hope that helps.

Best wishes,

Greg

PS. I know I still have three valves belonging to you. I know I've been slack but also had alot going on. I'll get them back to you soon, promise

[prince of darkness]

Originally Posted by Greg.

Certainly the basic 300 can sound grey, but in my case I fitted it to a seriously tweaked Thorens TD150 and even this grey arm sang in the circumstances.

Sing if you're glad to be gray! (Tom Robinson).