Is a rewiring upgrade on a Rega RB250 worth it?

[Johnny Vinyl]

I'm not in a position to upgrade my tonearm (RB250) to something like an OL or a Michell Techno-arm, so I was wondering if getting a rewiring done would be worth the expense. If so, can someone recommend a rewiring kit they feel would make a difference? And how much would such a thing cost?

 

[flez007]

I rewired my RB300 with the incognito kit, as well as changed the counterweight for a Kelly weight, both great upgrades for my former Rega300.

 

[Johnny Vinyl]

I rewired my RB300 with the incognito kit, as well as changed the counterweight for a Kelly weight, both great upgrades for my former Rega300.

Never heard of the "Kelly weight". Is the Incognito kit the one with the Litz wiring? People seem to like that.

 

[flez007]

Sorry John, I did some searching and I could not find ir either (it was some years ago), I will try to explain how this counterweight worked:

a) It was made from a different metal than the original one
b) It was not "centered", it was off-cenetered in order to have more weight at the bottom of the tonearm
c) It had a small screww to attach it to the arm tube, instalation was really easy.

As for the incognito kit, not sure if it had a Litz wiring, silver maybe?

here is what I found at the Incognito web page:

Incognito Rega Arm Rewire

Now also available with silver loom

A one piece, cartridge clip to phono sockets tonearm cable, specifically designed for all forms of Rega based tonearms.

The Incognito cable features a continuous cable run from cartridge tags to phono plug.

The heart of the assembly is a gold plated aluminium slug, situated at the base of the arm pillar, to which all earths are connected, grounding the various components of the arm assembly without the use of additional ground wires.

The external section of the cable is run through a Faraday cage assembly inside which, protected by a spiral polythene tube, run the left and right channel signal leads. The signal leads are therefore shielded, but held at a fixed distance from the screen.

 

[garylkoh]

One of the biggest upgrades, IMO, that we did to the Pacific NorthWest Audio Society's turntable which has the RB250 arm was the Michell Technoweight. I don't know about re-wiring it with a kit, but I think that the new weight is great value for money.

http://www.needledoctor.com/J-A-Mitchell-TecnoWeight

 

[Johnny Vinyl]

Sorry John, I did some searching and I could not find ir either (it was some years ago), I will try to explain how this counterweight worked:

a) It was made from a different metal than the original one
b) It was not "centered", it was off-cenetered in order to have more weight at the bottom of the tonearm
c) It had a small screww to attach it to the arm tube, instalation was really easy.

As for the incognito kit, not sure if it had a Litz wiring, silver maybe?

here is what I found at the Incognito web page:

Incognito Rega Arm Rewire

Now also available with silver loom

A one piece, cartridge clip to phono sockets tonearm cable, specifically designed for all forms of Rega based tonearms.

The Incognito cable features a continuous cable run from cartridge tags to phono plug.

The heart of the assembly is a gold plated aluminium slug, situated at the base of the arm pillar, to which all earths are connected, grounding the various components of the arm assembly without the use of additional ground wires.

The external section of the cable is run through a Faraday cage assembly inside which, protected by a spiral polythene tube, run the left and right channel signal leads. The signal leads are therefore shielded, but held at a fixed distance from the screen.

I noticed there are two versions available---one copper rewire, the other silver rewire. Is the difference in price worth the silver rewire kit?

One of the biggest upgrades, IMO, that we did to the Pacific NorthWest Audio Society's turntable which has the RB250 arm was the Michell Technoweight. I don't know about re-wiring it with a kit, but I think that the new weight is great value for money.



http://www.needledoctor.com/J-A-Mitchell-TecnoWeight

Let me get my head around this for a moment Gary! A counterweight having that dramatic of an impact on performance? I never ever would have thunk it! I'm not sure however if I competely understand why. Could you eleborate on this when you have a moment?

 

[mep]

Some of the counterweights are known as "drop" counterweights because it "drops" the weight lower under the arm because the mass of the weight it hanging under the arm. Personally, I wouldn't attempt rewiring the arm yourself unless you are skilled at that sort of thing. You could end up screwing up the arm if you don't know what you are doing and make it worse than if you left it alone.

 

[Johnny Vinyl]

Some of the counterweights are known as "drop" counterweights because it "drops" the weight lower under the arm because the mass of the weight it hanging under the arm. Personally, I woiuldn't attempt rewiring the arm yourself unless you are skilled at that sort of thing. You could end up screwing up the arm if you don't know what you are doing and make it worse than if you left it alone.

I'm not very skilled in that regard, although it doesn't look to be overly difficult. I'll check with my dealer to see if he can get the kit and do the install.

 

[mep]

You can easily mess up the tolerances of the bearing fit from what I'm told. It's not something that Rega recommends for the DIY crowd.

 

[garylkoh]

Let me get my head around this for a moment Gary! A counterweight having that dramatic of an impact on performance? I never ever would have thunk it! I'm not sure however if I competely understand why. Could you eleborate on this when you have a moment?

I wouldn't have thought so either. But the Technoweight seemed to tighten the bass, solidify the image and even expand the soundstage. This was with a Benz Micro Wood cartridge. The club had owned the turntable (a Rega P5) for years, and used very lightly because the members didn't like how it sounded. One day, I took it upon myself to take it back for a month and see if it was just set up badly. The Technoweight was something I had used before, and I bought one for the club. The improvement was quite dramatic - the most noticeable of which was the improvement in the bass.

 

[flez007]

Here it is:
http://app.audiogon.com/listings/454346

 

[Odyno]

The idea behind an eccentric counterweight is to lower the centre of gravity of the tonearm and bring this one as close as possible to the disc as possible.
You should se it on SME tonearm as well as on the Roksan.