Tonearm recommendation

Dear kirkus: I agree on the STAX build quality level. 

I never like me the cartridge quality level performance using the manufacturer alignment specs and if I remember I used Baerwald with better results.

Something in your post that hold my attention was and is:

"""  and it also sounds great with an integrated-style headshell for B&O cartridges (MMC20CL .... """


I respect your opinion and I never mounted my same cartridge sample by B&O in the STAX but I did it in at least other 4-5 arms and always with a degraded sound quality level against the same cartridge mounted directly in a universal headshell.
That plastic headshel type used with the 20CL is more or less the same concept for some of the Acutex models and I experienced the same disappointment with: sound degraded quality level.

Good that you share same opinion about the critical importance of accuracy on tonearm and cartridge set up alignments.

Regards and enjoy the music,
R.

Dear fleib:  """   It's good you gave opinions on some arms. """

I already gave my opinion about tonearms for wrm0325. What other kind of tonearm opinion you are refering to?

Regards and enjoy the music,
R.

Dear analogluvr: I posted that it will be useful to know which cartridges and which audio system to evaluate quality bass response.

It's desired that for that overall system bass management evaluation one of the audio system links be a pair of active subwoofers wired in true stereo fashion, that the system electronics link be SS using cartridges with not only flat frequency response but very good trackers and natural tone and wide separation between channels with no bias to any frequency band preferences and with very well damped tonearms and TT.
Yes, sounds as we need the " perfect " system but we really don't need a perfect one but one that at least goes in that " road ". We need an overall low distortions system.

In the other side that the tracks used for the evaluation we choosed ( between other things. ) because we own the digital counterpart too. IMHO to evaluate bass quality level a digital counterpart is a must to have.

Of those tonearms you named I don't know nothing of the SME 3: I own/owned the IV/V/3009/3012. The unipivot for this evaluation is no real contender ( at least that model. ). The one I heard but never did that bass evaluation was the MS that is a good vintage tonearm.

As you can see it's not easy for any of us try to make bass management evaluation and probably the hardest frequency band to evaluate.

Btw, I already posted that the ET-2 is an audio icon in the audio industry history. Good, for you.

Regards and enjoy the music,
R.

I respect your opinion and I never mounted my same cartridge sample by B&O in the STAX but I did it in at least other 4-5 arms and always with a degraded sound quality level against the same cartridge mounted directly in a universal headshell.
That plastic headshel type used with the 20CL is more or less the same concept for some of the Acutex models and I experienced the same disappointment with: sound degraded quality level.

Hi Raul . . . I'll admit that I haven't tried the 1/2"-mount adapter with a conventional headshell to mount the B&O cartridges specifically on the UA-7 . . . quite frankly, I'm a bit short of headshells, but on your recommendation I might give it a try when I get the chance.

I have found that it's quite the moving target to get B&O cartridges to perform their best . . . and will concede that I've seen quite a bit of variability in the manufacturing and condition of their adapters and "headshells" for non-B&O tonearms.  I actually had to combine parts from three "integrated"-style adapters, carefully trim the molding flash, and use a stronger clamp fastener before I ended up with one where both parts fit well together to allow positive overhang and azimuth adjustment, as well as firm grip when the cartridge snapped into place.  There's also the issue that the integrated-style headshell grounds the cartridge case to one channel of the cartridge leads, rather than to a separate pin as on the 1/2"-mount adapters . . . I can see this being an issue for some phono stage designs (notably some with balanced inputs) I've seen.

It does also seem that in general you've had better luck with lower-resonant-frequency cartridge-tonearm combinations than I have, and I can only speculate as to why this may be the case.  IIRC the measured resonance peak I'm getting is about 9Hz with the integrated headshell, and since I've never had a good experience with any combination from The Land of Five Hertz . . . maybe the lightweight Ortofon wooden headshell will be a good match.

@pryso

I will offer arm suggestions specifically for high compliance cartridges as all were introduced during their peak popularity (no particular order).
- Infinity/ADC
- Mayware Formula IV or others in this series (I adapted one to an AR-XA table)
- SME 3009 Series III

I was thinking about Infinity Black Widown latest version with graphite armtube. Never tried it myself, so i need some feedbacks from experienced users. Anyone?