Upgrading from a Rega RB300 tonearm on a vintage Roksan TT

coruja

Established Member
Joined
Feb 4, 2010
Messages
1,133
Reaction score
142
Points
196
Location
Kandy, Sri Lanka
I am using a system for the last 10 years or so that I had built up with the generous help and advice of the wonderful people on this forum.

I have a vintage Roksan Xerxes TT with a Rega RB300 tonearm and Nagaoka MP200 cartridge.
This is connecting to a Graham Slee phono preamp and then on to a Roksan K2 amp, and finally to vintage Sonus Faber speakers.

I am wondering if I could improve the source by upgrading the arm. I am on a budget of hundreds not thousands.

Leaving London 10 years ago I am now living in a tropical island in the Indian ocean with a much reduced income, so thank goodness for ebay!
 
The stock RB300 is pretty good, typical upgrades include the Michell Tecnoweight at around £100 and a rewire. Audio Origami or OriginLive stores are worth a look. If you can find one second hand the next jump up is a RB600 but these are pretty rare. Michell also make their own modified RB250 as the Tecnoarm which may be a better way to swap, these occasionally come up on eBay and have the tecnoweight as standard. By all accounts the RB250 is better to mod than the RB300.

You may find that upgrading the amp to a second hand K3 or even better a Caspian M2 (probably around £400 if you sell the K2) may bring bigger benefits as the K2 got mixed reviews When it was launched.

Just a couple of thoughts.
 
Thank you Ugg10 for replying. As usual with these questions, a carefully thought out answer such as yours ends up posing more questions!

Rather than tweaking about with the RB300 I am thinking of replacing it with a newer tonearm, such an an Origin Live Onyx, or something in the same price range second-hand as things have moved on in 10 years! Budget is around GBP 500 for this.

Or, I buy a new or second hand turntable that is better than my 30+year Xerxes and use the RB300 with that. Again, things have moved on.

I am not going to replace the K2 amp. Where I am based, I can buy on ebay but cannot sell. It's a bit backwards but it's something I have to live with for now.

I am hoping to take the plunge in to valve amps some time soon, but that budget is not more than GBP 1000.
 
Last edited:
I was just going to add that I have two RB300 arms, one with the Origin Live stub/counterweight mod and one with the Michell Tecnoweight. I think they're both worthwhile upgrades, though not earth-shattering. I doubt I could tell one from the other in a blind test, so I couldn't say which might be better.

Anyway, I know you're not interested in arm tweaking, but sharing my thoughts gives me a chance to say... Ah, Kandy, I have fond memories from a visit there in 1988.
 
The Xerxes was a pretty (very) good mid/high range turntable in the day and honestly the technology has not moved on that much since those days (bearing plus platter, motor and a slab of wood ?). In fact the technology stagnated for around 20 years whilst CD took over and has only recently become popular again.

So, to replace the Xerxes with a better modern turntable I suspect you will be looking for at least a Rega Planar 6 or even a Clearaudio Concept which are in the £1500 bracket with tonearm. Therefore a tonearm replacement on the Xerxes may be your best bet. Occasionally the Marantz TT15S1 come up at a reasonable price and these are made/designed by Clearaudio and have their tonearm and cartridge, occasionally these are around the £800 mark as they don't have the trendy turntable name. You could keep it in the Roksan family and look at the Nima unipivot tonearm that is usually on the Radius 5, these are around your budget second hand (£600 new) and occasionally come up for sale, doing a quick check these have the same geometry as Rega so no new armboard needed.

There are a couple of threads on here regarding Valve amps and if you are looking at £1000 for an Integrated amp then the usual advice is that you are on the cusp of where reasonable equipment starts, anything less has many compromises. As most of that valve sound comes from the preamp section then you could get a second hand valve preamp and use the HT bypass input on the K2 using it as a power amp which adds much less to the sound signature. Something from Copland, Rogue Audio, Audio Innovations, VTL, Icon Audio or possibly the Quad QC24 if looking at new. I guess Yaqin may be OK at the cheaper end.
 
Last edited:
I was just going to add that I have two RB300 arms, one with the Origin Live stub/counterweight mod and one with the Michell Tecnoweight. I think they're both worthwhile upgrades, though not earth-shattering. I doubt I could tell one from the other in a blind test, so I couldn't say which might be better.

Anyway, I know you're not interested in arm tweaking, but sharing my thoughts gives me a chance to say... Ah, Kandy, I have fond memories from a visit there in 1988.
I have been reading through your thread the past few days, and it has been a real treat. Thank you for sharing all that information with us.

Kandy is pretty much just as you had left in 1988 :)

Beautiful, slow and unfortunately rather parochial, the opposite of flashy Colombo and its sushi restaurants!
 
Ugg10 thank you for being the voice of reason!

I was a bit blase about things moving on. I will look in to a better tonearm.

As for the valve advice, it's early days for me, but your advice is going to be very useful.
 
I have been reading through your thread the past few days, and it has been a real treat. Thank you for sharing all that information with us.
It's kind of you to say so, I'm glad you've enjoyed it.

Kandy is pretty much just as you had left in 1988 :)

Beautiful, slow and unfortunately rather parochial, the opposite of flashy Colombo and its sushi restaurants!
I do hope they've at least fixed the plumbing in the Queen's Hotel ;)
 
Not sure if this is an onyx (but looks like it) but thought you my be interested.


or this which looks like a modified RB250 -


and this onyx from a UK retailer that may be OK to ship.

 
-- As an eBay Associate, AVForums earns from qualifying purchases --
-- As an eBay Associate, AVForums earns from qualifying purchases --
Not sure if this is an onyx (but looks like it) but thought you my be interested.


or this which looks like a modified RB250 -


and this onyx from a UK retailer that may be OK to ship.


Thank you for these, I have been looking as well and Analogue Seduction on ebay is selling an Onyx for a similar price and their postage is low: Origin Live Onyx Tonearm 5055581805235 | eBay

Also found a glorious SME 3009 Series III: SME 3009 Series III Record Player Deck Pick Up Tonearm With Damping Trough | eBay

Here's a funny story - I had to go and pick up a delivery I had missed from the local Royal Mail depot, only a 15 mins walk from my flat. But the lady behind the counter was giving me such dodgy looks when she was handling my parcel I really didn't know what was going on. Until I got home and realized it had 'Analogue Seduction' plastered all over it! I wonder what she thought I had ordered.
 
Last edited:
-- As an eBay Associate, AVForums earns from qualifying purchases --
The arm base does look like an RB250, but the pivot, constant-taper arm tube, and headshell are all wrong.
Update: From Origin Live Onyx...
"Even the £600 Silver, which has started as an obvious RB250 variant, had become an entirely new product by the time I reviewed the 3c." So it sounds like it's from somewhere along the evolution from a 250.
 
What has happened in the last 10 years is that I have been listening to music, spending months chasing obscure old jazz vinyl on ebay (there is a thrill in the hunt and also I spend less money), and helping to raise a boy - who seems to have inherited my limited and his mothers much better musical ability. So piano lessons, school fees, he swims like a fish & eats like a horse, etc, etc has kept me and any spare budget occupied.

Very recently, when I played a cheap out-of-copyright re-issue of a Bill Evans record on my second 'cheap and fun' deck - Pro-ject Genie with an Ortofon Blue - I heard something awful in the last tracks, like he was playing a set of sardine cans, not a piano.

I never heard that before on the Xerxes, and I wondered if a better set-up can actually salvage something out of the worst recordings, rather than the view that good systems highlight bad recordings.

Anyway, this started the whole process of looking in to an upgrade and me logging in to this form after a break of about 7 years.

With my circumstances and budget, I think I am much better off looking in to upgrading the arm, and experimenting with cartridges when I get bored and hanker after a change (sometimes, I think, we look for a change, not necessarily something vastly better.) There are wonderful new MM carts from Sumiko and an affordable fine line stylus AT that I would love to hear.

Thank you oscroft and Ugg10 for pointing me in the right direction.
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom