@atmasphere The arm tower allows adjustment of the VTA on the fly. The concept has been copied by VPI, Durand and others so it must work :)
I like this concept on my Reed, but smooth and precision VTA on the fly available with many nice vintage tonearms like Victor UA-7045/7082, Sony PUA-7, Lustre GST-801, Technics EPA series just to name a few which i like a lot.
I designed an arm board that allows you to mount longer arms, and while the dust cover can’t be used, longer arms like the Reed can.
Everyone can get a ruler to measure pivot to spindle mounting distange and realize how limited is the SL1200 series compared to the SP-10 series which i prefer.
You can always say that everyone can use a custom arm pod near the SL1200 turntable with tonearm of any size (even "16 inch long), but this is not for the people who cares about aesthetics and desing of the equipment.
If your TriPlanar is not covered by the dust cover of the Technics then fluid damper collect dust everyday. I knew it because i’ve been using fluid dampers with my Technics for a long time, this is very bad idea without dust cover (imo).
Honestly i don’t like the idea of having open fluid damper, but it’s just me. I’m pretty sure TriPlanar is a great arm and i was considering one myself along with Kuzma 4 Point, but ended up with Reed 3p "12 Cocobolo with no regret (the most beautiful arm ever in my opinion, and fully adjustable like no other tonearms that i know, even azimuth of the fly).
I must admit that your TriPlanar looks nice on your custom armboard on the SL1200GAE