I have two Trans-Fi Terminator tonearms. One on a modified Nottingham Analogue Mentor (Dais bearing, aluminum sandwich plinth, and premium power supply), the other a DIY air bearing job using aerospace components. Cartridges are Miyajima Zero and higher end Koetsu.
IMO the Trans-Fi is the best bargain in high end, maybe all of audio. I suspect that it outperforms anything costing less than a new car. Advantages: cost, adjustability, stability, tweekability (if there is such a word). It is the tonearm which registers the stylus to the record surface, and that must be both adjustable and stable, or that high end cartridge is worth no more than a mid-level MM.
Disadvantages: azimuth adjustment is intuitive but fiddly, and definitely not-on-the-fly. Badly warped records must be flattened. The beam of the tonearm must be perfectly horizontal (it is adjustable). Putting a record on the spindle requires attention. The compressor really should be in another room - but the tonearm is silent. Other disadvantages seem to me to be figments of the imagination from people who haven’t even seen one, let alone modified one for their own situation. But then YMMV. For me, the only ’side grade’ which I would consider would be a Durand. And that’s after the Hyperion cartridge.
