It also appears the Mike New upgrade has been official retired.Įdit: Actually I see the Funk Firm sapphire/ceramic bearing is another option that might still available. The price of the Timestep is probably my limit for a bearing upgrade. I sent an email inquiry, but the info I have seen suggests it probably costs more than I want to invest. Bass became more tight and tuneful.Įdit: Actually I see the Funk Firm sapphire/ceramic bearing is another option that might still be available. Funny enough, one of the best upgrades I have done is installing the $2 piece of KAB wax under the stock bearing.
I have done just about every other upgrade to my table (mat, tonearm, psu) and have found them beneficial. But I'm always curious if an improvement can be made that makes my 1200 even better. Does anyone here use one of these? Have you found it to make a noticeable improvement mechanically / sonically? So, as far as I can tell, the Timestep bearing is the only upgraded bearing still being produced. It also appears the Mike New upgrade has been officially retired. I was just looking for a website to order one, and I see that James Howard passed away in Sept 2016. On the issue of upgrading the 1200 bearing, I had been thinking of getting an Applied Fidelity bearing for quite awhile. The 1200's problem areas are shared by many other tonearm makers, from the relatively inexpensive to the uber-expensive. IIRC, SME doesn't get into magnesium arms with their M2 line but, reserves it for the 300 and V series. Strayed a bit off the beaten path nevertheless, the 1200MK2 and improved magnesium 1200G(AE) arms are not the best arms money can buy but, neither are they the worst. Of course, one could get a pivoted tangential arm a la Thales Simplicity II, KLAudio KD-ARM-MP10 (or 12), Schroeder LT, etc. There is no agonizing over Stevenson, Lofgren A (or B) or Technics own version. If I didn't align it that way, there would be no point in having it. The ability to do that, was a huge part of why I chose it. As far as my own tonearm, there would be no point in setting it up to have anything other than null points all across the lp. Click to expand.I think we're in agreement.Īccording to SME's published specs, the maximum tracking error of their 12" arms, are different depending on the design, by choice I presume.