Please Note: Some of the description below relates to the Origin Live internal and external rewiring. At Decibel Hi Fi we feel the Incognito continuous rewire is better value and so have included it our special version of the OL1 (Rega 250) tone arm.

Introduction

The OL1 tonearm is a superb budget arm (£124) with the capacity for massive upgrading - as a result the basic arm can come in various stages of upgrade or you can order these at a future date.

You can utterly transform your OL1 arm - it's worth it! Over 5 reviewers now use an origin live modified OL1 tonearm as their reference tonearm in preference to pick up arms costing over 6 times as much.
"With its superior bearing arrangement and no tracking force spring to add resonance's, it's a true giant killer. It has all the dynamic power and seismic bass of a £2000 super arm but costs a fraction to buy. With Origin Live's rewiring, it's one of the best arms money can buy and no less a bargain."
David Price, Hi-Fi World

The structural modification

You can achieve at least £ 1000 GBP worth of performance improvement on the OL1 for a relatively small investment. All the rega manufactured arms can be transformed to perform in the “super arm” league. A stunning mechanical modification by Origin Live elevates them to above the performance level of some of the very best (no hype!). This unique modification transforms the arm in such a way that every aspect of performance benefits. The results have astonished users who report the difference is a night and day experience.

Recommendations

"In short, the performance boost was striking. The most obvious improvement concerns scale. With the modified arm, the stereo image is much wider and deeper. Focus, enabling each musician to be placed with accuracy within the sound stage, is better too. And improved bass depth increases solidity and weight. In fact, there isn't an area in which the standard arm betters the modified. Dynamic swings are faster and tonal colours far more vivid, making the standard RB250 seem almost grey by comparison."
What Hi-Fi? (Sep 98) gave the modification a 5/5

"The overall musical and sonic performance of the Origin Live RB250 is simply astounding. Considering its sub-$500 price, the only appropriate reaction is to yell, 'Eureka!' The Origin Live modification of the RB250 appears to be the new giant-killer."
Rega arm mod review on RB250 - Stereo Times (Aug 2000)

"If you have any…Rega RB250 or 300, dismount the arm and send it off for the mods NOW. You have no idea what you are missing."
Rega tonearm mod review on RB250 - TNT Magazine

The structural modification entails reconstructing the rear end of the arm on which the counter weight is attached. This is an extremely critical area, as the counterweight represents by far the highest moving mass in the arm and affects any tonearm’s performance more than can be imagined. The work involves removing the rear end stub which is normally just screwed into the end of the arm and replacing it with a new stub, which is then torqued onto the arm by a thin high tensile bolt. The stub is also designed such that it presents a low contact area onto the arm tube and is therefore decoupled, yet far more rigid than the original. This also allows the counterweight to be rigidly torqued onto the stub using an Allen bolt. On an unmodified arm, the counterweight must not be rigidly coupled in this way due to the poor vibration characteristics of the standard arm / rear stub joint. This ingenious Origin Live modification elevates a good tonearm into the same league as the super arms and at an insignificant outlay. This mod applies to the RB250, RB300, RB600 and the RB900 in fact a modified RB250 will still comfortably outperform a modified rega RB300, RB600, or RB900 tonearm - see FAQ on rega tonearms for reasons why.

It should be noted that the structural modification to the rega arm is far more significant than any rewiring of the rega, even though rewiring the tonearm is known to do wonders. Rewiring the OL1 arm yields particular improvements to bass weight and transparency.