Tonearms: Ripoff?

@edgewear   What you propose makes some sense. It would be an interesting data point for the cartridge and/or arm buyer to relate to. However, it is not solving the issue, and may in fact contribute to more problems...why...because you are assuming that the synergy that you are reporting on, is what the prospective arm and/or cartridge buyer is listening for. That is a matter of taste, and how do we determine if something meets our taste test; if we don't have an opportunity to hear it for ourselves. As was posted on my cartridge nightmare thread, in the old days, we had HP who generally called it as he heard it, and IF you agreed with his thinking on SQ ( which BTW, I did), you had a pretty good idea as to what you were getting. Not ideal by any means, but at least a fairly decent reference point, IMO. Today, unfortunately, we do NOT have such a reviewer of analog...and I do happen to think that MF's reporting is questionable at best....remember he has NEVER heard a piece of gear that he didn't like, so long as the price was high and ever spiraling! 

@orpheus10 Uhmmm...Last time I looked inflation wasn’t on the order of tens of percentage points in a period of just a very few years ( i don't know what country you live in, but certainly not here in the US)...as some of the cartridges in question have risen to.
As an example, the Lyra Etna was priced at $6K when newly released, now it is $8.9K...is that just due to inflation...please do tell!

 Davey, now that you have admitted that you generally agreed with the review opinions of HP, I think I understand you a bit better. While HP was probably the greatest of audio Review writers, his opinions were diametrically opposed to my own  in most cases where I was able to audition equipment he espoused. He seemed to prefer the shrill and the clinical over the musical. And he definitely tended to prefer the very expensive over the less expensive. So I am a bit surprised that you followed him so closely on that score alone. For one example, he may have been largely responsible for the popularity of the original Supex cartridges, which were the first moving coil cartridges to be widely marketed in the USA. To put it frankly, they were just awful.

@lewm where on earth do you get the idea that HP "seemed to prefer the shrill and clinical over the musical"?? HP was IMO one of the few audio writers who called it as he heard it....if he heard it as ’shrill and clinical’ that’s what he wrote, OTOH if he heard it as overly warm and ’musical’ that’s what he stated. HP was one of the first writers to state how great the Benz LPS MR was at the time, flying in the face of many who felt all Benz’ were too warm ( although not to me). Are you telling me that that cartridge is shrill and clinical??

@daveyf 
Of course you're right and it's not just the subjective priorities of the listener (aka as 'taste'). We also have to account for the synergy (or not) with the turntable and the rest of the system. Not to mention the system / room interface. No, I'm not suggesting there's an easy way out of your nightmare......

But at least we would no longer have to put up with the bias of reviewers, who are part of the system we want to change. Obviously we would have to accept ownership bias from the people reporting on their experiences. But the more input from different people you gather on the same tonearm/cartridge combinations, the more dependable the outcome might become. A Wikipedia of sorts....

It won't solve everything of course. Think about the Denon DL-103, generally acknowledged as a 'classic'. All those fans can't be wrong, right? So out of curiosity I bought one (a $250 cartridge will allow this) and tried it in all my tonearms as well as a variety of headshells (hadn't mentioned those yet). Whatever I tried, it sounded horrible in every combination. Sometimes you can polish all you want, but a turd is still a turd.....