Why the sudden popularity of 12 inch arms

I did not read what Valin wrote, but if he likes the TW Acustik more than the Walker, that will be good for TW's sales.

As for your comment that the Walker arm kills the Phantom, I don't know if that is true and probably no way to test. The Walker arm only works on a Walker turntable and the Walker table will not accommodate a Phantom :^).

Or is Valin due to give back or sell his permanent loan and he is looking for another :-)

Unknown, I am not close to Valin. It's not by choice, I just don't know him well enough to have "inside" knowledge.

When I spoke to the owner of TW Acustik at the show, he had several tonearms mounted, including a Phantom, a Tri-Planar and something else (I don't remember). I ask what he liked best and he said "The Phantom, with Air Tight PC-1"

I certainly agree with him on the Air Tight PC-1, I have two of them now and no Koetsu. If you know how crazy I was about Koetsu you know how big a change that was. I also gave the PC-1 product of the year award at PFO where I review.

I did not get these as "samples" or reviewer freebees :^). I bought them at a reduced price, but no better than clever audiophiles and dealers get.

Albert

I was quoting you re the walker kills the Phantom. Or did u mean the air tangent??

What does the air tight bring to the sonic table that beats your Koetsu Jade's??

I have not heard one and have heard differing opinions

Raul, We are waiting for this list of "crappy" 12s. Although I doubt there is much risk of any of us picking up any of these crappy/vintage/obsolete throwaways, you owe us an answer. I see looking at your system pics a very real reason you may be having so much trouble making accurate comparisons that might lead to actually improving your system. Any first-year engineering student would understand the negative effects of having more than one tonearm mounted. You essentially have four antennae picking up room energy, at four different freqs and feeding all these resonant freqs into your phono stage. In the form of distortion! Take all that junk off and have a listen. You can thank me in the morning! Z.

Dear Downunder: IMHO I think that looks like a misunderstood from your part.

In any of my posts I told that the 12" tonearm are not good tonearms or that are crappy ones, I don't know from where you have that on your mind!!!!!, this is like if I tell you that your CJ preamp is a crappy preamp!!!. Downunder till today I never bought/own/owned any " crappy tonearm ", now you are clear of them.

Maybe I have to add some explanation on why I'm using the 9" tonearms: after that its performance is a great one ( with no single advantage from the 12" ones. ) the overhang on all those tonearms that I own ( the short ones ) is exactly the same and this fact make me easy the interchange of cartridges between them and this single fact is of paramount and critical importance to achieve the best from any phono cartridge.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

Raul, whilst we all appreciate the experiences and comparisons that you bring to this forum, I think that Zieman has a point.
Your claim that the old technology of arms is as good as, if not better than the new, is demonstrably false just as your beliefs that the older cartridges (both MM and MC)are legitimately comparable to the newer LOMCs.
In my experience, the greatest advances in analogue playback have occurred in just the last 10 years with arms, cartridges and turntables!
Your most 'modern' turntable appears to be the Acoustic Solid from Germany. I have heard their Mambo and I'm sorry to tell you that this is not comparable to the Raven AC, Continuum Caliburn or Criterion nor the Walker Procsenium or Rockport Sirius.
The arm I have discovered since mounting the Continuum Copperhead, is just as important as the table and the differences can be quite stunning.
Once again all your arms cannot bear comparison to the Copperhead, Cobra, Phantom, Triplanar et al.
For you to claim that you have heard all these tables and arms and believe your tables and arms are just as good, means ALL of us can happily make those SAME claims about all OUR equipment as well.
It doesn't unfortunately, make it so.
To compound the problems I have with you, all your arms appear to have readily interchangeable headshells which presumably have plug-in electrical contacts?
For decades, most reviewers and arm-designers have eschewed removable headshells because of the sonic degradation involved and extra electrical contact points.
The sum total of your 'less than SOTA' turntables with your dubious arms with removeable headshells, seems to me to indicate that the sound you are able to extract from the vinyl is decidedly second rate.
The differences you will still hear between cartridges, but the validity of your opinion is severely compromised by the real lack of nuance and detail that you are missing.
Now it is absolutely fine for you to be happy with your set-up and system.....but when you progress to making absolute decrees on the universal quality of arms and cartridges to readers who have little experience,it can be dangerous and misleading.