used goldmund T-3f at $4750?

I will likely incur the wrath of people with my opinion, but I would not choose either of those tonearms.

The Goldman is discontinued and parts are difficult to come by and in addition, it‘s performance is nowhere equal to the $4750.00 price tag.

As for the Airtangent, I owned one for three months. At that time my reference tables were Versa Dynamics 2.0 with linear track arm and a Basis Debut Gold Mk 4 with a Walker Motor controller. The Basis was set up for the test against the Versa with the Air Tangent, the Graham Tungsten-Ceramic and the Triplanar.

The Airtangent produced the poorest image, drastically reduced bass extension and dynamics and exhibited the most difficulty with high energy, high frequency passages on difficult classical music, such as the 45 RPM Classic Records reissues.

The Triplanar had the tightest bass, and was a great overall tracker, but I fell in love with the Graham Tungsten because of the magic midrange. The Graham equaled the Triplanar in bass depth, but slightly less taught and defined (this was minor).

You did not mention the SME 5, I personally prefer it and the others I mention to your listed choices. Perhaps others will add comments about their own listening experience.

For reference, at that time I was using the Aesthetix Io (non-signature) for phono stage, a Benz Ruby 2 and a Koetsu Rosewood Platinum Signature MC cartridges.

In my current system I choose the Walker Proscenium with the Black Gate motor controller.

Based upon what I have read and heard from others, the T3F is not a desirable arm, at least in part due to reliability or staying set up correctly. For $4750 you can do better, in my opinion. The Air Tangent is a really good arm, although about twice the price. I do not care for the Clearaudio/Souther arms with their very short cantilevers which are very susceptible to warps and critical of VTA settings, and they are not air bearing type which I prefer.

Brian

I have owned both the T-3F and T-3B, both mounted on a Goldmund Reference. Both are extremely tweaky with the sound varying widely depending on set up. The electronics that control the arm are also prone to problems. I would not own either unless I had a dealer who knew how to set them up and would support them. Even then $4750 seems steep. I would go with Albert's recommendations but wish that he had said a little more about the SME. i am currently using a Rockport with a Lyra Titan.