Recessed Tonearm Armboards

Depends on the tonearm design, some tonearm counter weight can cause problem if the recessed opening is too small.

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/ZY4AAOSw~OVWvyCg/s-l1600.jpg

https://www.analogueseduction.net/user/products/large/morch_dp8_16.jpg

Thanks @bkeske - was having a hard time finding a picture to illustrate. Good to hear that you are not having any issues. As Lewm indicated, not every tonearm/table may have issues with recessed armboards. Not to cloud things, but there also is a platter to plinth or top of armboard height requirement that most tonearms require.

@millercarbon - click link for a picture to see what I'm talking about.

https://sotaturntables.com/restored-turntables/

My SOTA Sapphire has a recessed arm board, as it is part of the suspended sub-assembally. Thus, has to be free, slightly ‘floating’, below the outer body.

No issues. Would have been had I purchased a popular third party VTA on the fly mechanism, but I went with the Jelco BA-1 instead. But even then, could have bought 1/4” spacers.

Would have to be pretty recessed and small to restrict movement, seems to me, and at that point you would probably run into worse problems, depending on the height of the platter.

A tonearm manufacturer once told me that a tonearm is restricted in movement if the armboard is recessed below the plinth

 This would certainly be the case in restricting usable 
pillar extension. 

Right. Recessed, restricted, I must admit that is a new one. New in the sense I never heard of it before. Not new at all in the sense misinformed overgeneralized oversimplifications are all over the place, always have been, and I expect always will be.    

You are new to turntables and looking for advice? Any time you hear anyone telling you anything about anything like this, disregard. Tune them out. Any time you hear someone say anything about how a turntable sounds, how it works in this situation or that, even how it looks, pay attention. That is all you need to know. Find one everybody says is good and trust me, it will be good. No matter where or how the tone arm is mounted.

Too general a statement to take it as a rule. Recessed arm board may obstruct cueing device motion or impede VTA adjustment, etc, etc, but not in every case.