Why are modern arms so ugly?

Dover,
Look at the shape and materials used in the arm construction and tell me it looks like all the other tonearms produced today?
To say it is similar to those plastic arms of the 50s is fatuous.
Look at the unipivot design with a stabilising pivot on a sapphire jewelled swash plate to maintain stability.
Look at the total lack of headshell?
Look at the cam-weighted anti-skate designed to increase as the arm moves inwards.
Look at the jewel-encapsulated unipivot.
Look at the tonearm wiring exiting from the top of the arm and how it's supported on a stainless steel hoop frame to avoid any pressure on the arm movement.
Look at the azimuth adjustment utilising the actual swash-plate?
Look at the ability (with the Copperhead) to have additional armwands which can be substituted complete with their fixed cartridges?
Look at the counterweight system design with its placement so far below the level of the turntable platter?
And finally.......listen to the results!
To say any one of these elements has been used before negates the fact that there is a vocabulary of successful design principles which is fairly
limited in regards to choice?
If you don't agree that the Cobra/Copperhead designs have advanced the state of the art then that is your prerogative.
Please provide an example of an arm that in your opinion does for us to analyse

Dear Dover, if you wait a few months, you can answer Halcro's last question with much more ease ....;-) .....
Cheers,
D.

Halcro, see my comments below :

Look at the unipivot design with a stabilising pivot on a sapphire jewelled swash plate to maintain stability
Comment - I would argue this is not a unipivot as the bearing has multiple contact points and the arm does not have a single path to ground.
Look at the total lack of headshell?
Comment - Alphason - one piece titanium arm/cartridge mounting, ET2 - one piece tube/headshell, Syrinx PU2 - no headshell.
Look at the cam-weighted anti-skate designed to increase as the arm moves inwards.
I'll give you this but there have been other solutions to provide increasing antiskate force using magnets, elastomer threads ( Helius ), etc
Look at the jewel-encapsulated unipivot.
Comment - Naim Aro, Immedia Centroid
Look at the tonearm wiring exiting from the top of the arm and how it's supported on a stainless steel hoop frame to avoid any pressure on the arm movement.
My ET2
Look at the azimuth adjustment utilising the actual swash-plate?
Not a unipivot then, the Vector also uses a stabiliser system.
Look at the ability (with the Copperhead) to have additional armwands which can be substituted complete with their fixed cartridges?
Naim Aro, VPI - both complete with counterweight etc.
Look at the counterweight system design with its placement so far below the level of the turntable platter?
Odyssey RPG from 20 yrs ago, Naim Aro, Kuzma unipivot, Blue Note Unipivot, countless others.

Modern arms that have interesting facets - by the way this does not guarantee performance - Naim Aro for 1/2 the reasons you gave for the Contimuum, Roksan Artemiz - pyramidal bearing and intelligent counterweight, Eminent Technology - 1st air bearing tangential that worked, Air Tangent air bearing, Helius - single point allignment of vertical and horizontal bearings that they claim ensures energy hits both vertical and horizontal bearings in phase to reduce smearing, then you get into the likes of the Breuer, Da Vinci where craftsmenship are clearly evident.

You missed the unique counterweight and pivot point at the same height as the record surface.
Answer - Immedia RPM & Centroid.

I'm sure there are many others. I have no doubt the Continuum arms are excellent, and they would be on my short list if I were to upgrade from the Aro, along with the Immedia Centroid. However to suggest they are beautiful and push the frontiers of tonearm science is an overstatement in my view.

Hey Halcro - thought you might like to read up on the original Vector by AJ Conti -

The Vector 1 tonearm utilizes a hybrid bearing featuring a point contact, .020” radius polished male pivot fabricated from hardened tool steel. The female cup is ground and polished from sapphire and is precisely radiused to achieve self-centering with the pivot. The entire weight of the tonearm is concentrated on the primary pivot, with an innovative stabilization bearing controlling azimuth as well as guaranteeing stability of the vertical rotational plane of the stylus. This new, advanced bearing system solves the problems with all previous fixed bearing arms (bearing chatter, lack of azimuth correction) as well as the problems with unipivot bearings (azimuth “rocking” reaction reducing bass and dynamics, “loose” hand operation, unstable azimuth reaction to vertical record warps). The result is a tonearm of unprecedented sonic performance and superior tracking, guaranteeing reduced record wear.

The Vector tonearm is designed with a center of gravity offset from the main pivot, generating a couple (torque) about the axis of the armtube. This torque creates a secondary force resulting in a constant side-load against the stabilizing bearing, which consists of an azimuth guide arm riding against an ABEC 7 precision ball bearing. The guide arm is ground and polished to a .060” radius, creating a point contact against the .125” radius bearing. The secondary bearing is loaded in a purely radial, uni-directional fashion, eliminating all free play as well as any requirement for the bearing to support axial loads. With a radial runout of .0001” or less, the secondary bearing guarantees azimuth stability to within .01070. The secondary bearing is submerged in an extremely temperature independent damping fluid, guaranteeing no possibility of bearing chatter. The azimuth guide arm is angled at the exact angle of the headshell, forcing the tonearm to maintain azimuth while traversing record warps and at all VTA settings. The above arrangement yields a silent bearing that is supremely stable, resulting in effortless sound and pinpoint, stable imaging.

Look familiar.

This has been around for years. Better add the Vector to the list of true advances in tonearm science. AJ Conti has also been championing a balance centre of mass approach to unipivots as well, ie dont hang the balls too low, because if you do when the arm hits a warp, the low riding weight acts as a pendulum and tracking force increases as the arm has to lift the balls through a wider arc.

So what's new about the Continuum - did they invent the ABEC 9 bearing ??

Dover,
That's right....the Cobra and Copperhead arms are dual pivots. Not too many of them around?
All the tonearms you define without headshells actually have very well defined headshells. The Syrinx PU2 even has a solid bar fixed across its armtube to which the cartridge is screwed. The other arms have a flattened out shaped metal headshellsl welded to the armtubes. Because you can't see the welds doesn't make the headshell invisible?
All the counterweights you cite are well above that of the Continuums but more importantly, change their Moments of Inertia about the pivot with each addition or subtraction of a counterweight.
Because the Continuum's counterweights face downwards, the Moment of Inertia about the pivot remains constant.
The ET2 wiring exits from the top and lies loosely across the arm putting lateral force into the arm tracking. There is no vertical support hoop as in the Continuums?
But the most important and revolutionary impact of the Continuums is the shape and material (not carbon fibre) of the tonearm and the way this shape and construction were calculated with the aid of aerospace computers.
A pivoted tonearm is a very complex structural diagram to plot.
It is not a full cantilever because it is semi-propped by the stylus.
It is also a counterweighted cantilever which gives a totally different vector forces diagram than a pure cantilever.
Almost every tonearm in history has tended to ignore this structural complexity and make the armtube constant shape from pivot to cartridge whilst others have tapered the tube in a classic cantilever response to stresses.
Neither one is structurally correct and when lateral movement is added to the equation, these two basic solutions are unsophisticated.
For the first time in history, the same computer power that designs the structure and air effects of Formula 1 cars is utilised for tonearms.

As for the fit and finish of the DaVinci qualifying it for 'advancing' the state of the art.....you surely jest?
I have the DaVinci, the FR-66S and the Copperhead head to toe on the Raven AC 3 and the 35 year old FR-66S looks newer than the 4 year old Grandezza. The Copperhead is perhaps a fraction below the fit and finish of the DaVinci...but not far at all. The SAEC WE308 is a notch higher than the Grandezza whilst the SAEC 407/23 is another notch further up and the Mixro Seiki MA505S is a clear 3 notches higher.

You obviously don't wish to see the facts behind these revolutionary arms but there are better judges than you or I who have already written their verdicts :^)