roberjerman, What you say was apparently true of one of their lower end tonearms, and I cannot recall the model name. Perhaps Raul or someone else with a detailed knowledge of vintage tonearms will tell us. However, I think the more expensive SAEC tonearms were designed to conform with one of the standard geometries, albeit that may be Stevenson or close to Stevenson, which a lot of alignment gurus do not like, including Raul. Did Fremer mention the preferred alignment? I don’t see it on his site. They’d be best off, obviously, to have built this new tonearm to Baerwald or Lofgren specs.
What I find most interesting is that the price gives us some idea of the answer to that old question: What would this or that well made piece of vintage audio gear have to cost, if it went into production now? The answer as regards an SAEC tonearm is "$8500 to $9500". I would bet that those numbers are at least 8X to 10X the original price of the vintage equivalent. Price does seem high, compared to Invictus' beloved SME V. SME V is a good comparator, because it too sports a knife-edge bearing and is similar in other ways.
What I find most interesting is that the price gives us some idea of the answer to that old question: What would this or that well made piece of vintage audio gear have to cost, if it went into production now? The answer as regards an SAEC tonearm is "$8500 to $9500". I would bet that those numbers are at least 8X to 10X the original price of the vintage equivalent. Price does seem high, compared to Invictus' beloved SME V. SME V is a good comparator, because it too sports a knife-edge bearing and is similar in other ways.
