idl57, It's not surprising that the Koetsu tonearm did not float your boat. Upon close inspection of photos, it appears to be a Jelco tonearm in Koetsu guise, which of course raises its cost by a factor of 2 or 3 compared to a Jelco 750. Not that Jelco tonearms are "bad" per se.
racedoc, Can you say more about the Viv? I was in Tokyo a year ago and lingered in Yodibashi Camera in Akihabara for more than an hour deciding whether or not to buy a Viv. They had all 3 sizes on display (7, 9, and 14-inch) Which do you have? I calculated that tracking error goes down significantly when you go from 7 to 9 but from there going to 14 doesn't help enough to warrant the extra length, possible issues with resonance, and the difficulty in mounting. I would have bought the 9-inch, had I gone ahead with purchase. My interest in the Viv is based on my own home experience with one of the only other "underhung" tonearms on the market, the RS Labs RS-A1. That tonearm is also more excellent than one would want to believe it is by just looking at it. This led me to believe that underhang is a serious alternative, that tracking angle error is not such a big deal (because both underhung tonearms develop a lot of tracking angle error as they traverse the LP surface, more than with any overhung tonearm). By inference, this also suggests that headshell offset angle IS detrimental to maximum fidelity. (For others, the headshell on an underhung tonearm is not offset at an angle to the arm wand.)