Hi Gondo,
I can't help but empathise with what Stringreen says. Tonearms, unfortunately, are like everything else by being subject to the law of diminishing returns.
For you I guess my opinion (and quite a few others here) is most relevant because I'm using the same platform as you. As an R1 user I upgraded from a Linn Ittok/Music Maker III to a Graham Phantom II/Lyra Delos.
The Ittok/mmIII combination is no slouch but if the Ittok were in manufacture today it would cost perhaps 40% of a Phantom. The latter combination is superior in every regard but the differences could never be commensurate with the price differential (or perhaps it might if I applied a massively more expensive cartridge & phono stage but that option is not on the horizon) so it is a difficult decision that you make.
In the early 80s Linn often stressed Dover's point about small poor quality arm bearings risking damage by using them in conjunction with high energy low compliance MCs (such as Linn's own carts) so that is another important point to take into consideration.
It's worth adding that because a tonearm is so fundamental it will bring more to the party than would a correspondingly more expensive amplifier than the one you are using, so it's money well spent...
However, in defiance of my flat-Earth origins, I also subscribe to the "Barnet Theory" i.e. spending massively on loudspeakers! ;)
Cheers...
I can't help but empathise with what Stringreen says. Tonearms, unfortunately, are like everything else by being subject to the law of diminishing returns.
For you I guess my opinion (and quite a few others here) is most relevant because I'm using the same platform as you. As an R1 user I upgraded from a Linn Ittok/Music Maker III to a Graham Phantom II/Lyra Delos.
The Ittok/mmIII combination is no slouch but if the Ittok were in manufacture today it would cost perhaps 40% of a Phantom. The latter combination is superior in every regard but the differences could never be commensurate with the price differential (or perhaps it might if I applied a massively more expensive cartridge & phono stage but that option is not on the horizon) so it is a difficult decision that you make.
In the early 80s Linn often stressed Dover's point about small poor quality arm bearings risking damage by using them in conjunction with high energy low compliance MCs (such as Linn's own carts) so that is another important point to take into consideration.
It's worth adding that because a tonearm is so fundamental it will bring more to the party than would a correspondingly more expensive amplifier than the one you are using, so it's money well spent...
However, in defiance of my flat-Earth origins, I also subscribe to the "Barnet Theory" i.e. spending massively on loudspeakers! ;)
Cheers...