2. analog
  3. 139470-76532

Tonearms: Ripoff?

If you search for tonearm recommendations you'll find an overwhelming amount of praise for $1k and less products. Audiomods and Jelco are the two most mentioned.

The Audiomods is just some guy making Rega-based tonearms in a workshop. Just some guy is putting out tonearms that compete with tonearms that cost many times the price -- from the likes of SME, Clearaudio, VPI, Graham, etc.

So the question is -- are tonearms just a scam? How is it that everyone loves Audiomods and Jelco to death and never talks about / dismisses high end tonearms? Is it because there's no real difference between one of these low-cost tonearms and the high end ones? Is an Audiomods Series V ** really ** the equivalent of a SME V? Some guy in a workshop equals the famed precision of SME? Is that once you have the math and materials worked out all tonearms are essentially the same? Or is it that most owners of record players online are dumpster-diving for vintage gear and simply can't afford to listen to better?

So, what's going on?
madavid0
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,820 posts
 
I too read that the Rock’s headshell-end damping reduces sonic differences between arms, but that is an over-statement. Arm tube stiffness, bearing quality, geometric design, dynamic behavior, and other factors remain, and produce resulting audible differences. In a way, the Rock’s lack of resonances actually increases the audible differences between arms. It just makes arms marginal because of their own resonances acceptable.
jond's avatar
jond
5,846 posts
 
jollytinker gave me a good idea I think I'm going to start going on political forums and start arguments about cables. :p
sfischer1's avatar
sfischer1
56 posts
 
There is no rational basis for extraordinarily expensive anything. Such items may be scarce, have attention to detail, materials and performance lavished on them but cannot be rationally justified if an individual cannot afford them. Is a Ferrari inherently better than a Porsche? Arguments can be made from multiple perspectives. It was argued that the 100K home and Ford truck wouldn’t provide the same joy. For who? It is said that Sam Walton drove an old pickup and lived in a modest lifetime home, but had a personal jet to get him to his stores scattered across the country. For those who can afford them and want them, they will make a subjective decision. 
sfischer1's avatar
sfischer1
56 posts
 
A sort of statement I often encounter in Absolute Sound, and Stereophile reviews is the declaration of an expensive item's (20K turntable) great sound/performance but then compared to a 75K item (tonearm) which is appreciated as better, and the difference explained by virtue of the 3x price difference.  This is absurd. the 75K tonearm costs that because that is what it will take for the business to be worthwhile.  There is no mass production based price to materials/overhead cost ratio that applies.  Instead there is a business gross revenue to materials/overhead cost ratio.  If you can inspire customers, you're in business.
folkfreak's avatar
folkfreak
1,349 posts
 
@sfischer1 while I agree with you on economics (i.e. that there is not nor should there be any relationship between materials costs and end product price, provided the manufacturer can make a product you can price to what the market can bear) but the OP's assertion was that the expensive tonearms were a "rip off" i.e. that they provided no improved performance over a sub $1K model and that any perceived improvement was down to the naivety of the buyer.

While I do not want to enter any discussion of what a marginal improvement in fidelity is worth (to some zero, to others a very large amount) my experience was that better tonearms, which are often costly, do deliver appreciable and definite benefits. Whether that is worth it to the buyer is of course her decision, personally I drive a basic car and spend my $ on audio, but everyone's preferences are their own
More to discover