Curved and Straight Tonearms

@testpilot

Good question. While at it you could ask why are cheap plastic (acrylic) light weight turntables promoted over heavy plinth steel/wood traditional designs?

I think production and shipping cost has something to do with it...not sure if all the marketing hype about better sound is as real and tangible as all the production and shipping cost savings.

Like Harbeth light weight waffling speaker cabinets - I don’t buy into the hype but I do understand how a cheaper build and lowrr packaging and shipping cost is a big competitive advantage...

@shadorne
You have no idea what you are talking about. Harbeth and many other British monitors use the BBC thin wall design for a reason,and it’s not for a cheaper build ! Check it out!
http://www.grahamaudio.co.uk/technology/cabinets/

At your price point, you can consider going a refurbished Sota and start looking for a good condition Graham 2.2 arm or similar.  The Graham features VTA adjustment on-the-fly.  That is one of the biggest improvements in playback quality you can make.  You could also consider doing the same thing with a mid-priced Rega or other non-suspended table.  They may not be suitable for your installation, because it depends on how well isolated the table location might be.  Either way, you have a lot of excellent choices to consider.

Take your time, do as many auditions as you can, watch the postings here and most importantly, have fun!  Good luck & happy listening!

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions.  

@yogiboy

Good points and a good article marketing the benefits of thin wall - a bit like the benefits of Rega light weight acrylic plinth and platters (in the case of Rega the sympathetic absorption of vinyl vibration is most effective when using an acrylic platter as the material is closer to the properties of the vinyl and like thin walled speakers we are expected to accept the argument that "more vibration" is "better as the material dissipates the energy")

So yes I am aware the thin wall speaker was initially designed for BBC for light weight and portability and then damped with bitumen to reduce the deleterious resonance effects and then the "magical" benefits of more resonance were discovered.

I buy the advantages of portability and light weight. I enjoy the fact my JBL PRX615M are great lightweight PA speakers (light cabinets with light neodymium magnets) that are easy to move around for my band.

However, I don’t buy their resonance arguments. Why use a bitumen damper if the resonance is not a problem? And I don’t accept the claim that the extra cabinet resonance is beneficial - all resonance should be avoided for ultimate fidelity as any resonance will change the timbre of the sound. And thick MDF built heavier speakers can have bitumen damping too - so logically when damped and heavily braced these should be even less resonant than a thin wall.

Of course "beneficial" could be construed not to mean high fidelity but desirable sound to listeners - a warmer tone perhaps or more euphonic sound - I accept that and I agree Harbeth have great mid range tone (it is more the lower frequencies that seem impacted by this thin wall type design - at least to my ear)

My two cents of course. Maybe I just prefer heavier TT and heavy speakers. Certainly you can get great sound from light weight designs: speakers like Harbeth or TT like Rega perform better than very many competive but heavier designs. However the necessary damping required tells me that designers must compensate for the tendency for light materials and thin walls to vibrate with their own characteristic resonances.