Arm for NAS Mentor Ref t/t

[parkinni]

I have a Nottingham Analogue Mentor Reference turntable that I was using with a NA Alien graphite tonearm and Decca Super Gold (Garrott Bros.) Micro-Scanner cartridge. During a recent house move, one of the arm bearings broke out of its base and it is no longer usable. Short of sending it back to Tom (Fletcher) in the UK and doing a deal on a new NA arm, can anyone recommend a suitable Stateside replacement? My budget is in the low hundreds of $, as I don't have the same disposable income now as I did when I assembled my system.

Fyi, I also have one of the early NA Tracer cartridges that I'm just as happy to use instead of the Decca. The rest of my system comprises a Sound Design (tube) pre-amp, Croft Series 4 (tube) power amp, and Posselt Albatross speakers.

I know that this is (probably) slumming it, but is it possible to use a Rega RB250/300 with the Mentor? I've seen it used on some of the low-end NA decks, and wonder if it's an OK match? Also, can they be adapted to fit the Mentor arm post?

At this point in time, I'd like to just get my t/t back up and running. I can always upgrade the arm in the future when my funds allow for it. Alternatively, I could just put everything up for sale and build a newer, lower cost system..... any takers?

 

[parkinni]

Forgot to include a close-up of the arm post:

 

[Goomer]

I've heard a Decca London Gold sound very nice on a Hadcock arm, and these can be found fairly cheaply I think. Have you contacted Tom Fletcher about repairing your existing arm, though, rather than replacing it?

 

[SMEagol]

I had some Albatross's - bloomin brilliant bits of kit. They are not the standard drivers though, what have you got in there?
I've heard about Feastrex working well... little out of my league though. The horn baffles around the tweeters went on the derivative models produced that Jens sold the design to, so yours are like the pair I had. That carbon fibre arm makes me drool, basically I love the stuff. Sorry to hear about the move probs I like to move the hifi in a hire van myself. Nice Van Gogh ...

 

[parkinni]

I've heard a Decca London Gold sound very nice on a Hadcock arm, and these can be found fairly cheaply I think. Have you contacted Tom Fletcher about repairing your existing arm, though, rather than replacing it?

I'm not familiar with Hadcock at all: will Google them. Thanks.

I briefly talked to Tom when the mishap first occurred - it didn't sound good. The whole arm tube and body is a single piece of graphite (not to be confused with carbon-fibre) and a sliver of the lower body sheared off that was holding one of the two horizontal bearing pins. Being a very clean break, I reassembled it and put a light coating of epoxy on the exterior seam, but the arm does not track freely any more; don't know why. I think the best that I could do is to get a favourable price on something currently in his shop, but even that is probably outside my budget right now.

 

[SMEagol]

give ebay a chance , in times of crisis I have a look here. There are still bargains to be had. I've noticed that if I bid on things that end lunchtime and mid afternoon UK time, I usually do very well as most people are at work. As I do graphics I can steal time as menu bars process stuff!
Audiogon on your side of the pond always looks incredibly good value to me, if I didn't get caned on import duty and tax, I'd buy things from there myself. All the best C. Still love to know what the drivers are?...

 

[parkinni]

I had some Albatross's - bloomin brilliant bits of kit. They are not the standard drivers though, what have you got in there?
I've heard about Feastrex working well... little out of my league though. The horn baffles around the tweeters went on the derivative models produced that Jens sold the design to, so yours are like the pair I had. That carbon fibre arm makes me drool, basically I love the stuff. Sorry to hear about the move probs I like to move the hifi in a hire van myself. Nice Van Gogh ...

Everything I have came from Tom at NAS. Before I moved to the US, I was a regular visitor to 128 Cordy Lane, Notts.

The Posselt's are Tom's original demo pair. Jens P. revised the design early in its life and they became physically different from the original, so Tom's pair were no longer representative of current Albatross production units. I was using SD OBS speakers at the time - anyone remember those? - and was offered the Posselts. Still have the OBS at my Mum's house in Yorkshire: v.good speakers for smaller spaces, IMO.

The Sound Design pre-amp was hand-built by Pete Bruty: Glenn Croft's partner for a number of years at Croft Acoustics. Same design philosophy and build quality as any of the Croft pre-'s and (not surprisingly) a very similar sound.

Gutted about the Alien arm, personally. I was only moving 3 blocks and had it sat in the passenger seat with me the whole time. Don't know how it got damaged, but it did.

The reason I'm asking about the Rega arms is that I've found a very cheap RB250 in pristine condition within 80 miles of me. I can have a collet made at work to fit the arm and mount, but just don't know if it will gel with the Mentor. Saves me shipping the Alien back to Old Blighty and being tempted to spend more than I should at NAS.

As an aside, does anyone have a feel for what $$$ I could ask for my components and system in the US second-hand hi-fi world?

All help appreciated,
Nigel

 

[Coda II]

Just a few things:

I suspect an RB250 would drop straight in to the mount you have, I have one on a Spacedeck and it's fine. The stub on the Rega is 25mm I think so just check what your mount is.

Hadcock is definitely a different mount. Have a look at this ad: TonyL's spacedeck for some pics. TonyL might even be along here at some point...

SD Acoustics: just aquired a pair of SD1s and liking them very much.

One other thing: if it is a Rega fit mount a Roksan Nima would work if uni pivot is important.

 

[parkinni]

give ebay a chance , in times of crisis I have a look here. There are still bargains to be had. I've noticed that if I bid on things that end lunchtime and mid afternoon UK time, I usually do very well as most people are at work. As I do graphics I can steal time as menu bars process stuff!
Audiogon on your side of the pond always looks incredibly good value to me, if I didn't get caned on import duty and tax, I'd buy things from there myself. All the best C. Still love to know what the drivers are?...

I trawled eBay yesterday and found another very affordable RB250. Thanks for the link to Audiogon too: I'd never heard of that website but it has definite possibilities.

As far as the Albatross drivers go, when I first got them I did know what they were, but as you get older..... or eat more English beef..... just kidding - I'd kill for a roast and some real Yorkshire Pudding!

 

[parkinni]

Bought a nearly-new Rega RB300 from a member of Adiogon last week. Should have it sometime this week. Thanks for the tip, SMEagol!

Checked my arm post hole and will have to have an aluminium collet made at work to mount the Rega on the Mentor - not a problem.

Will update once I get things spinning again!

 

[A.N.]

the rb250's and 300's on the nottingham decks work superbly, i previously used a spacearm, thought it was pants, bought a 250 and got it hotrodded by audio origami. no contest, the ao'd 250 pi55ed all over the spacearm.

 

[parkinni]

Thanks for the info, A.N. I received my RB300 today and will make a collet for it tomorrow. Will try to set it up this weekend.

Been thinking about which cartridge to go with and I think I'll stick with the NAS Tracer. From what I remember it has a little smoother sound than the Decca.

As an aside, does anyone know what I could ask resale for my Decca? It's a London Super Gold with Garrott Brothers own MicroScanner tip profile, super condition, boxed, with mounting bracket/carrier.

 

[parkinni]

Spent the weekend moving my LPs out of the dining room and into my front bed/new listening room. Plan to add another shelf to my storage unit tonight so that my CD player can be housed in it with eveerything else.

Speaking of which, I just took advantage of the November eBay 10% discount coupon to snag a brand new Cambridge Audio 540c v2. Been wanting to upgrade my remote-less Meridian MCD Pro for the last don't-know-how-many years, and saw the 540c for $270 shipped. Even though I've not heard one, from what I've read it's a no-brainer for under $400.

Between my iPod Classic and the rest of my system, I think I'm pretty much set.

 

[parkinni]

Back on the CD player theme:

What's the best 1 metre pair audio interconnect cable for CD player to pre-amp under $50?

Currently, I have an old Monster Interlink 100.