"Don Nebel" wrote in message
...
Several years ago I had purchased a Telarc album of The 1812 Overture
and a M&K Direct to Disc album titled the Power and The Glory. The M&K
album is pipe organ music. Both albums provide challenges for some
turntables to play. At the time that I had purchased these albums I had
(and still have) a Dual 1237 turntable (cost $137.00) with a Shure M91ED
cartridge. The turntable played these albums without any apparent
trouble. One day, a long time ago, I took the 1812 overture to an Audio
Store and I told the salesman that I wanted to hear my album on his best
system. The salesman showed me a Micro Seiki turntable,a McIntosh
amplifier, and a pair of Ohm F speakers.

I had a pair, actually 3 Ohm F's once. In fact they aren't the greatest with
low bass. Not a lot of Xmax.

The sales man put my album on
the turntable and preceded to tell me the virtues of this system I was
listening to,then all hell broke loose. The Telarc 1812 has cannon shots
in it and some of these are claimed to be as low as 6hz.The tone arm
went skating across the album.The Big McIntosh amplifier shut down,and I
was told never to bring That record in his store again (funny I bought
it there) and I was shown the door.

I'd suspect a good dollop of acoustic feedback as well as everything else.

On the way out the door I told the
salesman that my cheap Dual played the album just fine.

Your Dual might have been mounted more securely, with more isolation due to
architecture and furniture.

Several years
have past and I had acquired a Technics SL-1400MKII and I got out the
1812 overture to check out some new subwoofers,the cartridge was a Shure
V15 typeVMR. History repeats itself and the tonearm go's skating across
the album.

In contrast my house is on a concrete slab. I had Ohm F's and I had Ohm F's
with a subwoofer. No problems. Turntable was a Thorens TD125 and SME 3009II
tone arm. V15-III & IV.

I increased the tracking force to 2 grams and the tonearm
could not track the cannon shots. Next I put on the M&K album, and when
the tonearm came to the low bass passages the needle jumped out of
the groove.The Technics turntable was of the same vintage as the Dual
turntable but cost much more ($440.00).

It's not vintage, and its not cost, its engineering. Note that besides a
concrete floor, and being in a robust cabinet in the next room, the TD-125
has some pretty heavy duty shock mounting of its own. The arm and TT are
mounted on a flexibly mounted subframe.

I got out my old Dual 1237 and
put the Shure V15 on it and listened to both albums without any obvious
stress to the turntable.

It's possible that the tone arm had a higher resonance, and to some degree
acted as a low pass filter. Also, the Duals did have some kind of built-in
shock mounting.

Now for the whole point of this discussion,I am
looking for a tonearm to put on an AR turntable. The current fashion in
tonearms seems to be medium mass tonearms such as the Rega's and
SME's.Will medium mass arms and the Shure cartridge track my most
challenging records?

IME probably, almost certainly if you avoid the other problems I've
mentioned.

Should I be looking for low mass tonearms? I would
hate to invest in a tonearm and it not play the records that I have. Is
the Dual tonearm better than it's price would suggest? Would a vintage
Infinity, Grace, or Formula IV tonearm be a good choice?

Probably, the ultimate in cheap, effective anti-feedback mounting for a
turntable is a patio stone sitting on top of a somewhat-inflated bicycle
tube. Works for holograms and lasers, works for audio.