tonearm cable straight through or plug in

It is not just simply a question of "straight through" or not. You have to consider the wire gauge. In my experience, the stiffness or lack of flexibility of the wire can affect downforce, antiskate and tracking. Most wires that are advocated for tonearms I would be reluctant to use as they are too large a diameter, or have too stiff a covering.

It is all very well having minimal connections for the signal to negotiate. However, if the arm tracking is compromised your straight through connection is worth zip - you then just have better reproduction of errors and nothing more.

Some manufacturers use the arm wire as an antiskate device! Which, of course, is up to them if they wish to save on production costs.

I use a very fine wire which imparts minimal torque to the bearings - 12 strands of 0.04mm copper (silk covered).

Just my opinion.
John

"Some manufacturers use the arm wire as an antiskate device! Which, of course, is up to them if they wish to save on production costs."

How do know production cost is the reason for not using antiskate, and not a different reason like a better design?

How do you know production cost is the reason for not using antiskate, and not a different reason like a better design?

Because there are skating forces which affect all pivoted arms and omitting antiskate altogether is not good design. Likewise using a method like arbitrarily twisting wires when there are better ways to implement it, is not good design.

A cheaper product can, of course, be a good design. It depends on the design criteria, if one of those criteria is lower cost.

And as far as costs go, of course it is cheaper to omit antiskate. How much is saved depends on the nature of the device omitted.

Whether that saving is passed on to the customer is another matter.

And whether or not antiskate is used at all is another matter again, and to do with personal reference and nothing to do with good design.