AR XA

This is my newly acquired AR XA turntable. I lived with one like this in the early 1970s while in college, and have wanted one ever since. The music is from JS Bach's "The Well-Tempered Clavier", and is being performed by Glenn Gould on a Columbia Masterworks 2-eyed mono recording.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• AR
• XA
• desktop

[ilovelinus]

I was wondering: the arm has anti-skating adjust? How is the distortion level?

[pmichaelsummer]

@ilovelinus No anti-skating. Inner-groove distortion seems no more (or less) noticeable on this turntable than on my Linn and Fons that have anti-skate compensation.

I run the AR with a period-correct Shure M-91ED cartridge, an it sounds great.

[pmichaelsummer]

I'd bet oil migrated to the armature (if I read you correctly, and you attempted to oil the MOTOR bearing).

FYI, there's a guy on AudioKarma (gogofast) with two motors for sale.

[ilovelinus]

@pmichaelsummer Nice! Thanks :)

[ventennio78]

Nice turntable.

[bamaslamma1003]

Nice turntable! I have one just like it.

[gli7utubeo]

I had one in the early-mid 70's with a Shure V15 Type III. Thanks. Brings back great memories.

[TheFRiNgEguitars]

Love the AR turntable, it rivaled expensive high end stuff for an original price of less than $100.00. You had to set it up yourself via instructions provided. The AR's manual operation is easier than most other turntables, mostly by its solid plinth, and highly arched headshell handle. It had been said that you can hit the plinth of the AR with a hammer, and the arm will not skip.. I actually tested this with my knuckles (long ago) and it passed, in fact the music was unfazed by it!

[gnativerson]

nice - the motor on mine died after putting a drop of oil on its bearing (why?)

[umajunkcollector]

I had one of these back in the 80s. It seemed so simple and basic to me, so I got a Thorens. The Thorens was the best TT I ever had, sure wish I did not sell it with my LP collection (CDs?) - big regrets now.