Back in the mid to late 70’s, Audio Technica made a refined tone arm lift and marketed to all those who were using manual turntables. The high end audio world was fully of fine tonearms from SME, Ortofon, ADC, GRACE, Infinity, , Fidelity Research and Micro Seiki. The problem with these glorious tonearms is that at the end of the record you would have to manually lift the arm from the lead out groove, that or listen to it rotate and hope the stylus didn’t skip onto the label where serious stylus and cantilever damage could occur.
Owning Linn Sondek LP12 directly after retiring my Dual 1219 was an eye opener. Not because the Linn was better (not by a long shot), but because I was constantly on edge about jumping out of my seat to lift the tonearm. I searched for quite some time for a used Audio Technica tonearm lift. They were expensive and very rare and 30 years ago out of production. Thankfully production resumed as audio fans eveywhere came to their senses and started buying up LP’s and turntables again.
While reading the Absolute Sound back in 2014, I remember seeing a review of a tonearm lift that was only $60.00 and was in production. I immediately ordered one to use on my Dual 1229 turntable which was now sporting a fully manual GRACE 747 tonearm.
When the package arrived I couldn’t believe that I paid $60.00 for this light weight plastic lift which probably cost the manufacturer less than $1.00 to produce. I didn’t expect it to last a month, but since I had no other option at the time I reluctantly installed it.
That was 12 years ago, and since then this cheap looking plastic tonearm lift has softly raised my tonearm nearly every single day since then. I figure I play two or three LP’s nearly every evening, and on weekends the turntable could be running all day. That means that The Q-UP has cycled over 26,280 times since I installed it. Staggering when I think about it.
Unquestionably the Audio Technica AT6006R is the most eloquent tonearm lift you can buy, and should out live it’s owner with ease. Like all thing built by Audio Technica, the AT6006R screams quality. It’s also well worth the $139.00 retail price. That said, I have seen The Q-UP sold now for as little as $39.00 new. That is hard to pass up given it’s track record for reliability. Yes, I would purchase another, and I highly recommend this all plastic light weight tonearm lift. More to come!
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