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Hi, George

First off all I have to mention that I use Max 282 as my “second” arm. I mean my best stereo cartridge I use with 3012 as I feel that it has more interesting lover bass and upper bass then 282. The 282 has slightly hollow and slightly bore dry bass then I would like to. I work responsibly well with my Onyx and SPU the have slightly overly-romantic and overly moistured upper bass but with “neutral” cartridges (whatever it means) the 282 sound too North German to my taste.

George wrote:

I am using the fixed headshell "pipe." Have you found any workarounds to set the azimuth? One could use the J-arm with an adjustable azimuth headshell as an alternative.

George, I have all those pipes and as I remember all of then have adjustable azimuth even if the headshell is not removable. Also, I feel that the fixed headshell straight "pipes" are to light for Koetsus and I loaded them with quite a lot of extra mass. However I tend generally to use much more heavier arms then it usually consider “a good match” by the ordinary “audiophile wisdom”.

George wrote:

My arm came without a damping through and the pipes without damping arrows. I was able to purchase a an original through later. Is is worth the effort to try and make an arrow for my setup?

It is hard to say. Since I use more affective mass then it should be the default surface of the damping arrow is not enough for me. Therefore I use more viscous oil of even used silicon a few times, though it is too stiff for the sq mm of the default damping arrow, even if it submerge very shallow. The effect that I got form the oil damping was also very different, depends of the compliance of the cartridges and few other things. Currently my 282 hosts Otophone SPU Mono and it has a full bath of 5W-30 with the damping arrow extended all the way into the oil. The arm subjective moves very-very slight damped but I was not able to detect that it affect the quality of sound in any way.  I experimented with changing the coupling between the oil and the arrow but I did not detect any benefits of auditable results. I decided to keep oil just because it is already there…

George wrote:

Most Importantly, I notice that you use the arm with the fingerlift attached. Have you ever tried it without the fingerlift attached?

What do you men the fingerlift, the default Micro’s tonearm lift? Do you men to use the arm without it? I thigh tha if it is not engaged then it is completely out of picture? Was I wrong?

George wrote:

In addition to recommending this arm, I must mention one other thing that I am very grateful to you for. You were very keen on the Micro Seiki Du Pus Extra "sweeper." I bought one and was so impressed at the dirt it picked up that I bought an assortment of the other makes and styles. I ended up, apparently as you did, with the Audio Technica. These things must have been very popular at one time. I ended up sticking with blue tac a penny sized brass footer plate on the end to lighten the "tracking force," works much better for me. I am using the roller dry. Have you tried any anti-static liquids on the roller?

Yes, those devised are every simple bat incredibly resultfull. The Audio Technica cleaner is better made even they have the brash running behind the roll, that it a Mecca of idiocy. Micro did the picking brash run ahead of the roll and the dust lifting by the brash for picking by the roll – it is much more effective. Still, I use both of them and very happy with the benefits they offer. I use then dry only and I religiously do not use any moisturizing…

George wrote:

Last question, how long does it take you to change pipes and make adjustments on the Max? I have an extra J-arm and of course just changing the pipe is easy enough. However, I found that resetting the tracking force (using the weight at the rear, not the dial) and VTA to be cumbersome to my fairly clumsy fingers.

The tracking force is set within the pipe and when you change the entire pipe then all setting should be preserved, the only thighs that should/might be changed are the VTA. When I used to do it I use a very small high-resolution level that I placed atop of the 282’s large turning plate, parallel to the pipe. I knew that this given pipe with it’s given cartridge should have (at it’s best setting) the air bubble to be for instance 5mm form the perfect horizontal position. So, I change the pipe and then moved VTA until I placed the air bubble into a necessary position. Ironically but I might if I wanted to keep this level scotched in there foe all time – I did not detect any sonic problems with it.

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