Illustrious Tonearm - Owner Comments

Greetings from Vancouver

I wanted to give you some feedback!! I just upgraded from your Silver to the Illustrious. I had never heard the arm before so it was a leap of faith.... but based on what an enormous jump it was from my rega 600 to the silver i was pretty confident. When i was originally looking for a new arm i had my heart set on the Ekos which i had listened to on my table for over two weeks.The Ekos was the best thing i had heard on my Gyro (bettering a SME 5 in my opinion) by a large margin.In the end the Ekos was too rich for my blood so i went for the Silver. The Silver was and is a nice improvement over the Ekos........i was very pleasantly surprised......i purchased it for the price and got a superior product. So i went from the best arm i have heard on my deck to a new arm(Illustrious) WOW........I have discovered a new format......SALP!! The value of this arm is off the scale. By the way according to your estimated break in time i'm not even there yet.......I only have had it on my deck for a couple of days (8-10 hours)

I DON'T KNOW HOW THERE CAN BE TWO MODELS ABOVE THIS ARM

The thing that most impresses me about your company is knowing each product up the ladder will be an improvement over the next model......this is something i don't think you always get. I can think of numerous speaker lines where i like the middle child or even the youngest child over the so called "statement" products"-
With respect

John Stratton

Tonearm installation on Linn LP12
Previously, I was an orthodox Linn man, with a linn Ittok II arm using a Clear Audio Maestro cartridge, which I thought was perfect for the LP12, but I have certainly changed my mind. The Illustrious Arm with your pre bored arm board just went on the LP 12 without a single hitch and cartridge line up was a piece of a cake. I added a little of the old Linn sub-chassis spring adjustment voodoo and presto, it was like walking through a door from winter into mid summer . It was that kind of a change...... I hate to say this , but it is really wonderful. The best money I have spent on high end audio in years. I listened for seven hours dragging records out of my collection (with a pause for pizza and red wine), old records, great records, and terrible records. The difference in every case was incredible. Records that I thought were so very dull just came alive. My complements.

Bill Roberts - USA

See link to review on Wigwam site by Kevin Fiske http://www.hifiwigwam.com/showthread.php?72673-Origin-Live-Resolution-II-turntable-and-Illustrious-3c-arm