Why is the price of new tonearms so high

Dear Henry, can't do that right now - if I did I would make a strong and detailed remark about the phrase "universal tonearm" and would show that this is a contradiction in terms.

Just out of curiosity - while I am in my TT project I will demonstrate my concept about a pivot tonearm too.
Kind of side-show.
Maybe we will see the mexican born tonearm first, but mine will be published shortly after.
It won't take me years, - can't, since I always claimed it is fairly simple and easy.
I will address those points all the "others" haven't even thought about before.
That tonearm will not work with ALL cartridges, but it will work with the 20-30 best.
It will not work and can't be mounted on all TT's - but it will work and can be mounted on the best.
And it will show that all my former remarks about the topic were made for good reason.
The very best is never universal.
A tonearm - even with adjustable moving mass and interchangeable armwands - can never suit all cartridges.
The tonearm is always part of a spring-mass-system were it forms only one part of that system.

Is there a universal cartridge?
Is there a universal car?
Is there a universal plane?

Trying to make a tonearm universal or claim it is shows big enthusiastic pride about a product/component, but shows a basic lack of..........

We'll see.
Halcro ..... you wanted me to give an acid test.
We'll have it.
Good sports.

Cheers,
D.

Oh this gets better and better, two new fantastic arms to choose from, my TT can mount two....

And now the ten thousand dollar question, whats the price of those arms Raul and Dertonarm?

Hi Pär, Raul's will be a market product.
Mine will only be available for a few selected audiophiles - but I will nevertheless publish the tonearm.
As I said - kind of the long requested "acid test" (... and I will proof, that it will withstand even aqua regia ).
The big problem is - this is one thing I guess Raul and I agree upon - that you can't put an "all-assault"-top flight component to the market today with a price tag lower than the competition.
If a new Top-high-end tonearm is introduced and his price tag is half of the big Continuum, new DaVinci, Air Tangent (still around ?) etc. - no one will take it seriously.
In other words: you introduce the "best universal tonearm" ( NOT my words...) to the market and put a retail price tag on it of US$3890,-.
There are hundreds of potential buyers on this planet who won't take it seriously and will not even consider buying it to test.
No matter how fancy the cosmetics - no matter if its coming in a cherished antique finish wooden presentation box with gold plated dressings.
You put a price tag of US$20 000,- on the very same tonearm and you will sell 3 dozens to the far east market (and to Russia...) in the first 3 weeks.
Why ?
Because with this price tag the tonearm does transport a huge image, status and "face" to its buyer.

Strange new (not really...) world....

Cheers,
D.

P.S.: don't blame me now if R's tonearm comes with a very serious price tag...... its the market and the human nature who are to blame.

Hi All,
does the world need yet another tonearm, I ask?
Me, - I'm not so sure actually.

But here a few point I took note of:

We were getting our knickers in a twist over dynamic vs. static arm balance (all know by now what this is, yes?).

Along comes the innocent-man talking about a uni-pivot arm. Most of all, that ALL the best arms are uni-pivots - ha, hallo!
And nobody even raised a flag?!
Since we all have listened by now to the apparent 'must have' of dynamic balance ---- show me a uni-pivot with dynamic VTF!
THAT, is a contradiction in terms, and so the best arms (uni-pivot) are now fine sans dynamic balancing??

In fact, even a knife-bearing = pivoted (but not gimbled, like a compass) can NOT use dynamic balancing. The spring action will want to lift the arm off the bearing(s), and make it rattle.

As to the most talked about and therefore = best arms by deduction = uni-pivot --- Anti Skate is almost as problematic too.
The Skating force is not equal from begining to the end of a record, so any Anti-Skate is yet again a sort of compromise. With a uni-pivot it has the tendency to tilt the arm i.e. affect best chosen azimuth.

So then we can carry on by adding magnet stabilizers like AudioCraft and Graham, or add more pivot points like a 4Point Kuzma, but dynamic balancing --- no go!

So are we saying these arms "the most talked about" are also sub-optimal?
I really don't know, but it would suggest some designers are truly busy wasting their time with faulty design principals.

To be complete, all those 'string suspended' arms would of course also fall into the 'sub-optimal', as NO dynamic balance can/aught to be applied there also.

Funny thing is, those arms were all tested and found to sound really very good --- now what?

Axel

Yes thats the big problem, its always the tradeof between making money and having "street cred"/philantrophy. Anything that is slightly better than the previous best can always command a higher price but its also a cheap advertising trick raising your price up to the top and signaling Im the alpha male and thereby getting a head start. Its a lot more fun charging a lower price and still getting the respect you deserve for having the best(if a best can be established) product.

So as I said be real interesting to see where you two put your prices.