New tonearm for a Pioneer PL-41...anyone tried this?

I am thinking of replacing the tonearm of my recently acquired Pioneer PL-41 with something slightly lighter. The original tonearm seems to be of high quality as does the rest of the turntable, but the arm is a bit heavy.

Does anyone know the exact geometry of this turntable/arm combination or know of a tonearm that is a more or less drop-in replacement?

I have read of at least 2 people who are using them with Audio-Technica arms, but I have no idea of the models.

(I just ordered the manual shown below, so hopefully this will help...It should at least be helpful for setting the VTA which is currently very high)

The other problem with the original tonearm is it has no counterweight adjustment. The table is very well built. Let us know what you decide.

You will most likely have to do some measuring yourself. That arm is, a Jelco tube with CEC bearing(s). It will likely measure out to be the same as, or very close to, a Linn type. The arm I've seen used in it is a Audio-Technic pro arm. A radio station I worked at for 7 1/2 years had them on Sparta tables. Yes they are a good arm but I'm willing to bet (and there isn't any good way to prove it) that they also use a Jelco tube. Sometimes finding out who out-sourced what to who is like gettin ICBM launch codes.

The arm that's in there is a pretty good one and is capable of supporting a large number of carts.

Have fun, they are great monster tables.

I made some preliminary measurments using just a cloth measuring tape which isn't so good for exact mm lengths. The distance between the center of the spindle and the center of the arm pivot is in the neighborhood of 222-224 mm and the arm mounting hole is about 22 mm. I obvioulsy need a better way for exact measures.

That said, from old posts it appears that member danj put a lighter weight headshell on his and then had a lower mass counter weight manufactured. This is another option I am thinking of since the arm seems to be very good, if somewhat heavy.

An update for posterity if someone else wants to pick up one of these turntables (which I reccomend...huge strong motor, heavy platter, and real wood base).

I decided, due to the nice free movement of the tonearm bearing and unwillingness to throw money after a tonearm that might or might not be lighter than the current one, to see what I could do to lighten this one up a bit. I had already tested the weight from my PL-514 on the PL-41 arm and determined that the hole in the 514 weight was too small for the PL-41 arm. So I took the weight from my PL-41 with me to the thrift stores/junk stores around town.

Long story short I found a non-working Technics SL-23 whose counterweight had the same inside dimesions as the PL-41 and also had a good headshell.

So, here is what the weight savings amounted to:

PL-41 headshell: 15.0 g
SL-23 headshell: 9.0 g

PL-41 counterweight: 135.4 g
SL-23 counterweight: 105.7 g

Turntable sounds great with the Ortofon from my PL-514 and the lighter weight doesn't seem to have any negative impact.

All that is left to do is install the Shure M97xe I ordered for it and adjust the VTA when I get the service manual.

My Dual CS-5000 has the M97xe on it as well, so I look forward to a turntable shootout to determine which one stays in the living room system and which one goes to the bedroom system.

I'm an idiot. It doesn't have an anti-skate adjustment, not counterweight as I originally posted.

I just picked up a very nice pl41 mostly on looks alone. The needle is shot so I was wondering which avenue I should go also. I wasn't to thrilled with the original headshell that has just one screw. I also tried a different headshell but it was to light and I couldn't get it to track. The pl41 does seem to be a very nice quality table and I'll be interested in your thoughts on how the shure m97xe sounds. Where did you pick up the manual?

No problem with tracking once I got the lighter counterweight installed to match the lighter headshell. The M97xe hasn't arrived yet, but I will let you know how it performs once I get it all set up.

I ordered the service manual on e-bay, but what arrived at my house was an owner's manual. Not too useful assuming you can figure out how to turn it on and lower the arm on your own. Hopefully the seller has the service manual as well and will exchange.

jeff,

I too have a PL-41, but have not had any problems with the arm and counter weight????

Orren,

There is nothing wrong with the stock headshell and counterbalance, it is just somewhat heavy by today's standards. Since I already have 2 working turntables, I just thought it might be a fun project to try and either replace the stock arm all together or ligthen it up under the theory that a heavier mass tonearm will wear the records faster. I doubt that the lowered weight (the way I went about it) will improve the sound of the arm (I suspect the opposite may be true). I'll probably try out the sound with the original and replacement headshells.

That said, with your collection, you could go the rest of your life and never listen to the same album twice, so I wouldn't worry about it.

I tend to be a creature of habit...somewhere between 500 and 1000 albums (lost track) and I listen to the same 20 over and over.