what are some of best tonearms you own or experience with.

@sokogear, I got no answer from VPI for months and the moment I dared to ask for my issue at VPI forum I got attacked.

I had later found out that many others have the same issues or worst with leaking and completely defective Tonearms.

even the bearing of my VPI turntable had presented a premature wear but it seems that it’s normal for VPI. at the end I moved into a serious manufacturer

For Harry it’s very normal to use hair driers to straighten the VPI Tonearms by sight and hands. The funny and sad fact is that at this  thread earlier,  he had attacked Fremer for not listed his tt at recommended components for 2020

@sokogear 
Your question about Rega wasn’t addressed to me, but I have owned a 600 on a p25 turntable and a Basis branded 250? On a Basis 2100 turntable.

When I replaced the 250 with a Basis Vector 3 the difference was a massive improvement. Although Mr. Conti at Basis said to expect this actually hearing the difference allowed me to understand how much a difference a tonearm can make.
Based on that I think Rega is “good for the money” but not a great tonearm. Just my experience, yours may vary

When I distributed the SME V, it never spoke back to me.

Nor me :) But it was obvious that the arm tube had resonance. If removing that 'killed the sound' clearly you have bigger fish to fry.


Adding the Analog Survival Kit increased the mass of the arm. For this reason it limited the cartridges that worked to ones that had lower compliance.


But what worked better was to use an arm that had an arm tube that was already damped and so did not need the Sumiko kit. The Tiplanar is an example of that; switching from the SME to the Triplanar was a revelation- better in every way.

@jperry - those are my thoughts as well. Over $4000 or so, I would consider other arms, and tables for that matter.

The one I mentioned earlier that doesn't touch the plinth from integrity hifi (I think it's called Tru Glider) for example at $4K sounds interesting and someone posted that they loved it.

@rim - my problem with VPI is their arms. I don't like unipivot and as discussed their laser printed Fat Boys sound flimsy at best - $4K is a joke. They started out making bases for Denon tables, and I wouldn't have a problem using one of their tables with a different arm. They look pretty solid.

I've also heard good things about Live Origin and Well Tempered Labs but haven't heard from anyone on this discussion regarding those.

@sokogear
Rega arms - my main experience goes back RB300/RB600/RB1000.
When the first RB300's came out they were touted as a great giant killer.

Whilst they were excellent bang for the buck I could easily demonstrate that more expensive arm with a modest but great sounding cartridge could outperform a RB300/Koetsu combo for example. Moral of the story is that if you want to go up on cartridge, buy a great arm first.
The RB1000, well built, I have seen tracking issues with Shelters in our high humidity, Benz range tracked better.

When I sold my Platine Verdier I put an Audiomods arm on it at the request of the purchaser. With a modest Goldring MC I was quite surprised at the performance level - it easily despatched his SME20/V combo.

In my view the Audiomods is great bang for the price, but again stick to medium complinace cartridges for best results.

The VDH range tend to be medium complinace as are some of the Dynavectors along with Soundsmith MI's ( where you can select the compliance best suited ).