"S" shaped tonearm ?

Hi Raul, both we know that nothing is final. there are always different point of views, for good designs and average ones.
But some of these "S" Arms have their "Birth" only from Design reasons. It is true, that there are more parameters which are important, but which have the priority?
I wonder, why nobody designed a "S" shaped Air Line Arm... Could be the next big adventure....

But some of these "S" Arms have their "Birth" only from Design reasons.

Or marketing reasons. For the last 20 years, a new arm wouldn't be taken seriously unless it has a straight shaft and integrated headshell. But back in the '60s and '70s when high end turntables descended from professional radio gear, it wasn't considered a serious tonearm (and therefore wouldn't find a market) unless it had a detachable universal headshell. And on a 9" arm, that meant the wand had to curve.

One could say that--*all things being equal*--a straight arm with integrated shell has an advantage. But "all things" are seldom equal. The Rega RB300 is a highly regarded tonearm, especially for the money. Its strongest point is probably its straight, tapered tonearm shaft with integrated headshell. But it has other vulnerabilities such as unadjustable VTA, a VTF spring that's prone to resonate according to some users, and iffy azimuth.

Compare it to an old-school S-shaped tonearm such as a Technics EPA-100, and the Technics has advantages in lower bearing friction, a double gimbal design that maintains azimuth alignment better, a titanium wand that cheats conventional rigidity-to-weight expectations, and perhaps most wonderful of all, dial-in damping to accommodate a wider range of effective mass/compliance ratios.

Economy of scale comes into play, too. That's one reason an RB300 can be considered so good at $400. But if a company found the market potential to scale up to make 3 times as many per year, they could afford to make a better tonearm from better materials, closer tolerances, and more features at the same price.

Is the RB300 a better arm *simply* because it has a straight arm and integrated shell? In this case, probably no. Would an EPA-100 be better with a straight wand with integrated shell? Probably. Enough to tell the difference? Who knows?

Then there's the issue that "different" isn't always "better." At a given price point, a straight arm might have better imaging and leading edge transients; another design might have deeper bass or richer timbres. If you're only listening for imaging and treble, you'd conclude that the straight arm is "better." But someone else listening for the body of the tone might prefer a different tonearm for sounding more timbrally accurate.

Dear Thomas: Yes, I agree with you: nothing is final.

" +++++ It is true, that there are more parameters which are important, but which have the priority? " +++++

Well IMHO to achieve the best equilibrium between all those tonearm parameters in the tonearm design/build could mean to choose those mix parameters trade-offs that do less harm to the quality sound. This is very easy to say but extremely hard work to make, but this is what we are looking for. Obviously that all those parameters have a different priority levels but at the end all are important ones, example: what advantage do you have with a straight/integral headshell tonearm that has mediocre bearings? or that the material choossed to build was the wrong one?: equilibrium/synergy is the name of the game.

All the tonearm names ( and several others ) that I already mentioned are very good ( not average ones ) designs by any today standards, in the future try to test one of them in your lovely audio system you own.

Now, there are advantages on a S/J shaped tonearms let me explain one or two of them:

when we have a removable universal headshell we can really match the cartridge to the tonearm in an easy way that with a non-removable headshell. The removable universal headshell give us the great/huge opportunity to change/choose for different headshells: with different build material ( aluminum, composite aluminum, magnesium, composite magnesium, ceramic, wood, carbon fiber, etc, etc ) that have different self damping conditions and different kind of resonance and these factors works along the ones in the cartridge and change the cartridge sound, not only the material headshell parameter help to us to match the cartridge to the tonearm but the headshell shape too and the headshell different weight ( that help to change the effective mass ).

All these factors/parameters on the headshell give us an almost infinity chances to obtain the best of the best for any cartridge, something that you can't do it with any of the tonearms that you own. For you can obtain the best of a single cartridge you have to have several different tonearm and test in which one you obtain the best sound, in the other side with only one S/J shaped tonearm you can do it trying different headshells ( that are inexpensive: 40-120 dollars ).
Now this not something that I read somewhere or that some one told me NO! I have almost all the experiences about. Right now I have more than 60 cartridges, many tonearms ( S/J/Straight ) and a lot of different headshell/wires ones, all these arsenal give me the opportunity to obtain the best quality sound for almost any cartridge ( including yours ) something that almost all analog audio people ( including you ) only can approach/dream but very difficult to achieve if not impossible.

Well, when you own a S/J shaped tonearm you own not one tonearm but several ones due to the universal removable headshell. There are other advantages, as a fact we can write a book about.

Now, I'm not against the straight non-removable headshell tonearm designs ( I own several ones ), these tonearm have advantages too and can give you a different kind of sound, which one is for you or other person?, that's depend of what we are looking for and which ones are the trade-offs that we choose.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

Dear Johnnyb53: " +++++ Would an EPA-100 be better with a straight wand with integrated shell? "+++++

Well as you know Technics had the 501 that share many design parameters with the EPA 100, the 501 ( that I own too ) is a trsight non-removable hedshell tonearms that comes with 4 different effective mass arm wands, it is a great tonearm too but its quality performance it is not better than the EPA 100 or the EPA 100-MK2.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

Dare I say it?....I think the earlier post by Audiofeil makes the most sense.The scientific theory,and overall arguement just seem to make the most sense to me.
Based on personal usage,I could probably make a case for a "straight" arm linear tracker being the ONLY way to go,as the ones I have heard were clearly superior to any arms in my experience.This is not the topic here,but it's a fun thought,as the "pondering" aspect of this thread hs brought out alot of conjecture.
Best to all.