Tonearms: Ripoff?

@rauliruegas You seem to be trying hard to say "high-end tonearms are a ripoff" but without hurting people's feelings.

@br3098 and others say that what matters is matching the tonearm with the rest of the system. "You don't need to pay a lot for tonearms" is implicit in that statement so it's essentially saying "high-end tonearms are a ripoff".

In regards to your house and car analogy, a 20 million dollar home will be in prime real estate with the best views and neighbors. The home will be large and offer a lot of room for the best decor to offer the most pleasing living experience. Having two Ferraris would boost by joy of driving tremendously. The experience of living like that could not be replicated if I lived in a $100k home and owned one Ford pickup truck.

No one would say: "it's all about matching the home and car to your personal needs".

mdavid0,

I don't get it.  You ask a question and you receive several good replies, some agreeing with your postulate and some not, but all thoughtful and in the spirit of the purpose of this forum.  You then decide to crap on anyone who doesn't agree with your preformed conclusion.  What's wrong here?

Oh wait, I must be tuned into Fox News...

High end tonearms, perhaps even more so than almost any other hi fi item, are artisan crafted works of art. Yes, there is a science to the geometry of a tonearm, but once you have mastered that the specifics of a design come down to materials and the precision with which it is constructed. It's no surprise then that the particular manufacturer I favor (Joel Durand) is a professor of music and a musician himself. The selection of materials (woods and sapphire for example) and the precise way these materials are used in the design of a given tonearm are all critical -- even the size and location of tiny weights all make a difference that is easily audible once you have the system set up.

The economics of such a manufacture is the antithesis of mass production and economies of scale -- you are paying for a lone manufacturer producing in very small quantities. Are the prices justified? Are any prices for any high end component justified? Only if you believe that the improvements in sound you hear in your system are worth it -- personally they are for me (i.e. to be very clear I am arguing that high end tonearms are NOT a rip off in any way shape or form). 

My experience has taken me from Linn->Rega->SME->TriPlanar->Durand and at every step I have appreciated the improvements along the way. Ability to achieve optimal alignment and optimization of every variable is a given at the high end (and frankly one of the shortcomings of the SME designs btw) but there is so much more to that in the art (word chosen deliberately) of tonearm design.

There's another can of worms to be opened about the specifics of the design (parallel vs pivoted, unipivot vs gimbaled etc etc) but my comments about materials choice and specifics of design apply within any particular family witness the extensive threads on the optimization of certain parallel designs for example.

Dear @madavid0:  ""  Whom determines what's high end? do you know it? if yes then do it a favor and please explain it and if not then why are you talking of high-end tonearms ripoff? """

I told you that the ball is in your field and that before you want to pass to other field you must give answers to those very specific questions and you just dis not yet.

What are you playing with? because no one here ia an stupid gentleman as you could think ancertainly not more stupid that what you could be and I'm not saying you are an stupid gentleman.

"" 
So high end tonearms are a ripoff? """, those are your words not mines. I always say what I think and never is hard to me to say it.

Please give the answers.  Do it a favor and post your answers, it's a true favor for you not for us.

R.

br3098,

Check again. It’s probably CNN.