Be aware, Fremer like it fast and technical. He's very up front about it so you should know but just making sure you do. In spite of that he also seems to describe things very professionally accurately- something I know from personal experience as the guy actually called me one time and we had a good half an hour talk about tables and arms.
I would skip the linear as being way more headache than they're worth.
Other than sound quality, which you will figure out for yourself, the two things I find matter most are ergonomics and a direct signal path. I would never again buy an arm that requires an interconnect. No way. One continuous wire from cartridge clips to RCAs is the way to go. Next to that I would pay attention to looks and feel and ease of use. One fussy comment and I am gone. Too many fine sounding well engineered arms to be messing around with anything else.
One factor on that to keep in mind. When you hear people talk about the magic or matching or whatever... think of computers. How many after they spent untold hours and finally figured out all the BS you have to go through to make a PC do what you want, how many after all that have the strength of character to admit, I shoulda got a Mac? All that stuff I went through, its not even one click on the Mac. I hook it up, it knows I hooked it up, it just happens. Nobody, ever, said that. Its just way too hard to admit they wasted all that time on a colossal mistake. Same with arms and tables. Nuff said.
I would skip the linear as being way more headache than they're worth.
Other than sound quality, which you will figure out for yourself, the two things I find matter most are ergonomics and a direct signal path. I would never again buy an arm that requires an interconnect. No way. One continuous wire from cartridge clips to RCAs is the way to go. Next to that I would pay attention to looks and feel and ease of use. One fussy comment and I am gone. Too many fine sounding well engineered arms to be messing around with anything else.
One factor on that to keep in mind. When you hear people talk about the magic or matching or whatever... think of computers. How many after they spent untold hours and finally figured out all the BS you have to go through to make a PC do what you want, how many after all that have the strength of character to admit, I shoulda got a Mac? All that stuff I went through, its not even one click on the Mac. I hook it up, it knows I hooked it up, it just happens. Nobody, ever, said that. Its just way too hard to admit they wasted all that time on a colossal mistake. Same with arms and tables. Nuff said.