Rek-O-Kut S-260
A sixteen-inch transcription tonearm that tracks at under a gram, and pivots on chrome balls the size of pinheads.
Overview
The Rek-O-Kut S-260 is sixteen inches of tubular arm with a counterweight off the back. The pivot rides on ten chrome steel balls, five at each end of a cross-shaft, each one just 1 mm across. That sets it apart from the flood of ordinary 12-inch tonearms on the market when it appeared. Rek-O-Kut built it as the long sibling of its 12-inch S-320, and the two share a design language down to the twist-lock cartridge shell.
The length is the whole point. The S-260's pivot center sits 11.135 inches (28.28 cm) from the turntable's center pin, against 8.284 inches (21.04 cm) for the S-320. The arm measures 15¾ inches (40 cm) overall with shell and counterweight fitted. That extra reach lets the arm hold tracking error under one degree across the record. The company's own literature lists that as a design target, alongside a tracking force of one gram or less. It was meant for broadcast or transcription decks playing 16-inch discs.
Rek-O-Kut's own documentation put the S-260 at $34.95, five dollars above the 12-inch S-220. It described the Micropoise system as calibratable from 0 to 6 grams. That is a fussier procedure than a simple threaded counterweight, but it decouples the two adjustments, so fine tracking-force changes are repeatable.
The vertical bearings are the talking point among collectors who have had these apart. The arm is suspended in its gimbal on a cross-shaft, and each end of that shaft runs on five 1 mm chrome steel balls. When the bearing is clean and correctly loaded, the arm floats. The horizontal bearing is more conventional: an inner-and-outer-race design with two rows of hardened steel balls, and the arm shaft fits into it. Grit in that bearing is the most common complaint.
The rest of the package is practical. The cartridge shell accepts all standard cartridges and locks with a twist. It is removable for stylus changes, which is handy on an arm this long. Connection is via EIC terminals with color-coded wiring. The arm is fully shielded, and Rek-O-Kut claimed resonance below 10 Hz with an average pickup, "virtually dampened out". That spec matters more with the high-compliance cartridges the arm was built to satisfy. A vertical height adjustment lets the user set the arm parallel to the record surface. Packed weight is 3 lb (1.4 kg).
Where the S-260 gets awkward is in the numbers, because Rek-O-Kut's own documentation cannot agree on them. One manual gives pivot-to-spindle as 1 inch (27.94 cm), an obvious typo for 11 inches. Another gives 11.135 inches (28.28 cm). Overall length appears as 15¼ inches in one place and 15¾ inches (40 cm) in another. Back clearance from pivot to the end of the counterweight is listed as 3¼ inches in some documents and 3½ inches in others. The safest reading is the metric figures, which cluster around 28.28 cm pivot distance, 40 cm overall length, and 8.9 cm back clearance. Anyone mounting one on a plinth should measure against the metric values and leave margin.
Rek-O-Kut itself listed the S-260 under BE Part No. 950-0062. The arm turns up in the company's turntable ordering tables as an option drilled for on the 12C and 12C2 decks. The "12C/320" and "12C2/320" variants were factory-drilled for the 12-inch S-320, while the "/O" versions were drilled for other-brand arms. The S-260 was the long-reach option for transcription work rather than the default.
For a collector who wants a period long-arm with a low-mass bearing design and a sub-one-gram tracking claim, it is worth chasing, with caveats. Setup takes patience and a steady hand.
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