If you decide to go the arm upgrade route, I saw this little gem on ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...ategory=32 83

It is a good arm, and the low slung weight would improve your chances of
clearing the dust cover. The big caveat is, I do not know what kind of mods
you would have to make to the plinth and arm board. I have an AR ES-1, and
it came from the factory with a universal armboard.

I have no connection to the seller of this item, just friendly advice.

"Arny Krueger" wrote in message
...

"Nicole Kidman" wrote in message
3...

I just bought an Acoustic Research XA Turntable on ebay to fix for my
own
personal use. The turntable is missing the headshell and the stylus. I
have
been told that AR TT's use an exclusive headshell that cannot be
replaced
with other brands. This means that I will have to either find an AR
headsheall or change the tonearm. Does anyone have advice on changing
the
tonearm on this table? Or does anyone know where I can obtain a
headshell
that will fit on the AR tonearm?

Changing the tonearm on this turntable is a good idea because the standard
tone arm was the worst part of the whole turntable.

One caveat is that the original tone arm had a relatively low profile and
tone arm upgrades are like to obsolete the existing cover.

This individual has been mentioned as having experience in this area:

George Merrill
Underground Sound*
7990 Trinity Road, Suite 124
Memphis, TN 38018
(901) 405-0261