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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
orpheus10
8,668 posts
 

Dave, whether you know it or not, the price of gold is inversely proportioned to the value of the dollar; as the price of gold goes up, the value of the dollar goes down.

Since the Lyra Etna is manufactured in Japan, there are a number of factors that must be taken into consideration; one of which is the Yen, Dollar exchange.


    https://goldprice.org/gold-price-history.html


   
orpheus10
8,668 posts
 

Edgewear, I'm glad you confirmed what I suspected; you can polish a turd from now on, but when you get through, it's still going to be a turd.
daveyf's avatar
daveyf
2,877 posts
 
 @orpheus10 

Right now the Yen dollar exchange is pretty favorable to the dollar...what does that have to do with any of my points about acquiring the cartridges in Japan, except for re-enforcing  them that is! 
Do you actually have any clue as to what these cartridges sell for in Japan...if not I would suggest you do a little research before coming back here.
orpheus10
8,668 posts
 

"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?"



Madavid, you hit the nail on the head; the identical same goes for the cartridges; since they can’t pay for the ripe grapes, they pretend the green grapes are ripe.
orpheus10
8,668 posts
 

The market is what it is; if you want a trip to musical paradise, you got to pay the price.


A studious audiophile has paid part of the price with the knowledge he's obtained over the years that enables him to get the most for his money, but at the end of the day, high end sound ain't cheap.
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