Ummm... Syntax, I fear you have misunderstood my post, which you saw fit to quote. To say that the named tonearm designers "attempt(ed) to advance the state of the art" is not to say that in my opinion they have actually done so. I am not in a position to do that, because I have never heard any of the tonearms in a controlled setting, i.e., my own system. Perhaps you know better than I whether any of them succeeded. I intended only to say that it is nice to know that the art of playing vinyl is alive enough to elicit their efforts. As one of my sons likes to say, it's all good.