10 Inch Tonearms

My least favorite topic, guys who never manufactured anything in their life asking other guys who never even made anything (let alone for sale) why guys who do it for a living do it. Second least useful, the hypothetical "if" something or other is this that or the other thing "then" leap to some random unwarranted conclusion. We can do this all day. Wait a minute! Already are!

@millercarbon I thought this was a forum.
@rauliruegas the SAT guy says Much the same as Townshend Audio, Helius and Breuer - helius and Breuer form the view 10.5 is the optimal size and that the distortion point is a red herring which is outweighed by stiffness and the interaction of resonant frequency with arm length. 12 inch advantages are often derived by the weight better matching cartridge compliance.

Seriously, Millercarbon, there’s no obligation for you to participate in this discussion. Which is all that it is, a discussion. I never said anything that could have been interpreted as being judgmental or ill meaning. If you want to contribute, then fine and if not, that’s fine too.

Dear @goofyfoot  : ""  I've always understood a 12 inch tonearm to be better than a 9 inch arm in every way. Hard to believe a tonearm maker would make a ten inch tonearm if there wasn't something that made them desirable. ""

Well I already posted that as you I had the same misunderstood.

""  I’m inclined to believe there would be a difference in sound between a 9 inch and a 10 inch arm on a Thorens.."" I can add: in any TT.

I don't know what you are analising because 2 same EL tonearms that comes from different manufacturer, either 9" or 10" or 11" or whatever EL,  sounds different too: not big deal to post about, it's just common sense.


""   there's little margin of error when aligning the stylus so adding or subtracting an inch to the tonearm may make a difference or maybe not? ""

always makes a difference not one inch but even 1cm. That you can or can't hear the differences is another matters.

""  than it would make sense for manufacturers to lean more towards the 10 inch arm market than they are. """

Maybe you need to email to each tonearm manufacturer suggesting " your idea ".

R.

@rauliruegas , GREAT LINK. Everyone should read this link. It is a much better explanation than I can give. It explains why shorter arms are better and if you read into it why the needle pivot is not a good design for a tonearm. There are certain rules a tonearm has to follow to have even a chance of producing the best possible performance. Appearance is not one of them. Just because an arm looks cool does not mean it is going to perform well. Being beautifully made does not assure decent performance either. I would not call the Kuzma 4 Point 9 a really nice looking arm but it out performs arms costing four times as much and is in some ways a better design than the SAT arm. My Schroder CB is not a particularly good looking arm either. It is rather plain and simple looking, deceptively so because it is more adjustable than the majority of arms out there. David Fletcher of Sota and AJ Conti of Basis never considered making turntables for 12 inch arms because they felt that it would compromise the performance of their tables. They were good friends.