Raul,
While I agree that much of the fascination with 12" tonearms is stylistic, that is also true for turntables and almost every other piece of "audiophile" gear. But there are still some valid and practical differences that make 12" tonearms useful and desirable for certain applications.
16" (12" EL) tonearms are a holdover from the days of transcription turntables, so-called because they were designed to play 16" transcription disks. Many of these early systems morphed into commercial playback systems designed for audio studios and radio stations, and many of the early stereo cartridges were (and still are) designed for longer tonearms; such as the Denon DL-103, some of the obsolete Shure cartridges and the Ortofon SPU series.
Everyone has read or recited the standard mantra about longer tonearms and lower tracking error. In a perfect world this is true, but in practical terms the actual advantage doesn't amount to all that much. Also, I think that your argument about tonearm wire length is somewhat specious. Unless you were skirting the edge of danger with your tonearm wire or had some fantastic interference, the actual difference for the distance involved between a 10" and 12" run just isn't that great.
Your argument about mechanical damping is probably valid, except that 9" and 12" tonearms are not designed exactly alike and (presumably) a competent tonearm designer would have accounted for the mechanics.
As audiophiles we routinely use the term resonance to describe a complex series of mechanical interactions between the cartridge, tonearm and the arm board or plinth. The fact is that tonearms of equal length but with a similar published value for "resonance" do not act the same, do not sound the same and are not matched well to every cartridge. They are simply not the same. Without getting into a Physics 101 lecture, let's just agree that complex mechanical assemblies made up of different parts and different materials behave differently. While the published value for "resonance" may be the same, different arms will load and transmit energy from the cartridge differently.
In short, the tonearm and cartridge work together as a unit, and some cartridges will simply work (sound) better with longer tonearms.
While I agree that much of the fascination with 12" tonearms is stylistic, that is also true for turntables and almost every other piece of "audiophile" gear. But there are still some valid and practical differences that make 12" tonearms useful and desirable for certain applications.
16" (12" EL) tonearms are a holdover from the days of transcription turntables, so-called because they were designed to play 16" transcription disks. Many of these early systems morphed into commercial playback systems designed for audio studios and radio stations, and many of the early stereo cartridges were (and still are) designed for longer tonearms; such as the Denon DL-103, some of the obsolete Shure cartridges and the Ortofon SPU series.
Everyone has read or recited the standard mantra about longer tonearms and lower tracking error. In a perfect world this is true, but in practical terms the actual advantage doesn't amount to all that much. Also, I think that your argument about tonearm wire length is somewhat specious. Unless you were skirting the edge of danger with your tonearm wire or had some fantastic interference, the actual difference for the distance involved between a 10" and 12" run just isn't that great.
Your argument about mechanical damping is probably valid, except that 9" and 12" tonearms are not designed exactly alike and (presumably) a competent tonearm designer would have accounted for the mechanics.
As audiophiles we routinely use the term resonance to describe a complex series of mechanical interactions between the cartridge, tonearm and the arm board or plinth. The fact is that tonearms of equal length but with a similar published value for "resonance" do not act the same, do not sound the same and are not matched well to every cartridge. They are simply not the same. Without getting into a Physics 101 lecture, let's just agree that complex mechanical assemblies made up of different parts and different materials behave differently. While the published value for "resonance" may be the same, different arms will load and transmit energy from the cartridge differently.
In short, the tonearm and cartridge work together as a unit, and some cartridges will simply work (sound) better with longer tonearms.
