Looking for tonearm inspiration

Dear @mijostyn : "  There are tonearms at 1/2 the price that are superior in al...""

For you statement seems to me that you have deep first hand experiences with the SAEC tonearm ( all have the same design . ) and probably with different cartridges.

Is it that way? because if you don't have first hand experiences with then your statement means almost nothing and through that post you are " degrading " the SAEC tonearms.

R.

Something definitely wrong with one of our member:

When I said "stay away from SAECs " I'm not saying is a bad arm but against the 250 seems to me looks as an inferior performer.

Knife-edge tonearm bearing is the exeption and ask you why the 99% of tonearm designers choosed a different bearing design than knife-edge.

As I said the 407/506/8000 are extremely well made with a very high quality excecution, no doubt about and are second to none in this regards but this build quality does not means the tonearm is a " stellar " one because it's not.

I don't think SAEC made any changes because they already had evrything to build it as the original but exist the posibility that they did it. As you said we have to wait. Now, the SAEC problem is not about its choosed alignment parameters, its problem is deeper than that. As you know you can make any kind alignment you choose with any tonearm.

R. (05-03-2018)

and now this:

Dear @rpeluso : Your SAEC 308 has a quality build level second to none. ... ... ...   

R. (08-07-2020)  

I have nothing against SAEC, when i was looking for my first serious tonearm many years ago I had to choose between SAEC 308 and Technics EPA-100. Guest what what my choice @rpeluso  ? :) 

Definitely Technics EPA-100 

  

Rauliruegas, I am sure the Saec is beautifully made. It is just a bad design by modern standards and if you know anything about tonearm geometry it is obvious just by looking at it.  I do not have to use it. I know exactly what it is going to do. It is a beautifully made piece of junk by modern standards. Like I said before there are any number of modern arms that will handily out perform it at considerably less expense. I would not take one even at $500.00. 
Your friend is entitled to his own opinion especially when it come to his own system. I have heard many $500,000 systems that sounded awful to me. It is just a race for who can spend the most money. I have heard $100,000 system that are hard to criticize. The owner knew what he was doing. 

I have a 20/2 and it came with a SME IV.vi tonearm, which was very good.  I upgraded to a Tri-Planar tonearm about a year ago and found it to be a big improvement.  
My cartridge is a Lyra Kleos and my phono stage is a Parasound JC-3+.
This has been a very nice combo for me.  
Best of luck finding your best solution.

Dear @snackeyp  :  The V is better than the IV.vi, the V comes with ABEC 9 bearing instead ABEC 7. Yes that can makes a difference.

I like the Kleos and I mounted in several tonearms including the V and at each top tonearm combination the Kleos performs different due that all tonearms resonates in different frequency range and its damping levels are different too.

If you mount your Kleos in the Kuzma 4Point or the Reed you will like it too and who know maybe will like it more than with the Triplanar that's a good tonearm too.

R.