Best tonearm under $2k

George Merrill sells the Jelco 850S for $795. It is an excellent sounding arm with expansive 3D soundstage, cohesive frequency response, and a fine top end. And you don't have to spend $2000 to get a big improvement over the Rega. Get the Jelco 501 phono cable. Don't let the low price fool you. Economies of scale.

Maybe consider an Origin Live Encounter—same mounting geometry as Rega and a big step up in performance. It will mate well with your MIMC Star.

rickraymond, that is correct you want a higher effective mass arm for cartridges with lower compliance. However, there is no typical 12" arm. The SME V-12 has an effective mass of 12 grams and the Kuzma 4 Point 11 16 grams. I am sure there are 12" arms with effective masses over 20 grams. The Sorane certainly looks like a high mass arm but numbers speak louder than looks. Never make assumptions. Assumptions are the mother of all f--- ups.

Mike

@dodgealum 
 I looked into the Origin Live arms and they seem to claim quite a bit about their arms and not really too concerned about arm mass vs cart compliance. They state that a very well built arm supersedes any issues with mating mass and compliance. There’s a ton of informative info on their website which is hard to take it all in. I would say though that their arms do look very well built and their methods of engineering are very convincing. I’m interested for sure but need to do some more homework. 

I'd suggest having a look at a Thomas Schick 12" or 9.6" (available in the US @ $2000 I see).  On my Nottingham it performs superbly with low compliance cartridges and should work very well indeed with both the Denon and the Soundsmith.

It's very much a "less is more" design and the fit, finish and in particular the bearings are all superb. In my opinion there isn't an arm out there which can touch it at the price and I grow ever more fond of mine as I test it with different cartridges.

The standard graphite headshell from Schick is 15g, but way too expensive @ $289, so pick up an excellent Audio-Technica AT-LH15H (or AT-LH18H) instead and you're good to go.

However, if you're loath to spend the full stated budget then the Jelco 850 is also an excellent arm and a superb value at the $795 mentioned above.  I'd personally take it over an SME 309 without a second thought, though the 309 is also a very competent arm.