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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
folkfreak's avatar
folkfreak
1,349 posts
 
@lewm SAT have not taken any price increases, these are just the prices for the second generation designs
https://www.analogplanet.com/content/sat-swedish-analog-technologies-begins-delivering-four-new-pick...

Personally id rather like that Telos if I could only accommodate a 12” arm but the “light up” effect is a bit cheesy 😏
https://www.monoandstereo.com/2017/02/durand-tonearms-telos-sapphire-tonearm.html

folkfreak's avatar
folkfreak
1,349 posts
 
@madavid0 ahh the tyranny of numbers. 

Lets for for the sake of argument say that the Kairos is 10% better than a generic arm does that make it bad value?

What if I then posit that the only way of achieving that 10% is by spending on a better arm like the Kairos? No other change anywhere else in this system could yield that extra soupçon of versimilitude. Is the value equation now different?

The fact that in audio everything matters and the better the system the more likely it is that everything matters is what makes it so foolish to talk about “massive” improvements like the amp comparison you suggested. See elsewhere for a discussion of why diminishing returns in audio is quite the wrong framework, in fact at the high end you experience increasing returns from incremental changes as each change (like a better tonearm) unearths a new dimension (and new set of problems elsewhere in the chain)
best-groove's avatar
best-groove
843 posts
 
The Jelco is a large house that has built tonearms for many brands and has been building for itself for some time, tonearms from the affordable price and finished right for the required cost.

A good arm is also seen by friction, known that Jelco applies bearings on its tonearms with too high friction (30mg) not justified in the year 2018 if not on products of low or medium level but that is stubborn to apply to contain costs.

This friction could fit 30-40 years ago on high-level arms but now it is not the most desirable IHMO.

In my opinion, rather than spending $ 1000 for a tonearm Jelco I spend them on a vintage tonearm such as the Technics Epa 100 or Epa 500 which have friction of 5 and 7 mg respectively.
nkonor
635 posts
 
@vair68robert,

Is your opinion based on price / value only?  Do you have actual listening experience with High End tone arms? Such as the Graham, SME, Kuzma 4 point, Triplanar or any other High End tone arm. Have you auditioned any at a High End dealer? High End Audio show? Perhaps, an extended in home audition pondering the purchase of such an arm? Or are you a key board warrior basing your opinions based on reviews on the web, maybe needle drops on You Tube?

As folkfreak pointed out; you may need to expand your range of values to include actual experience. Not reviews by others and price.

Best
chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 
Instead of spending $50k on a f****g tonearm, drinking your "Château Latour" try to help children dying in some part of the world! The gap between rich and poor people is so huge. 
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