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

@rim - guess I won't be considering a VPI in the future. Sticking with what I've got for the long haul now that it is insulated from vibration and sounding great. I have it on a Townshend Seismic platform sitting on a wall mounted shelf. Adding those were tremendous improvements. I was a non-believer, but I was amazed at the SQ from my system.

FYI Rega makes spacers that may be able to help, but in general they say VTA doesn't impact their tables unless the cartridge is so deep that the back of it hits the record when playing. I think the whole VTA thing is overhyped as the cantilever and suspension on cartridges are there so the stylus fits nicely within the grooves if the arm and cartridge are of high quality.

In general, I think Rega arms are simple to work with and provide great value for the world of table/arm combos of $5K or less. I heard that SME is no longer selling arms on a stand alone basis.

Does either of you have a clear idea of what the resonances do that is detrimental to the overall sound?
Regarding the problem of VTA setting, I too have found it difficult to regulate arm height in repeatable fashion

When I got rid of the arm tube resonance in the SME, it was immediately less bright and more detailed; images in space were more palpable. My 'tweak' for the VTA was to make a little mark on the height adjuster know with tiny bit of Whiteout. That was I was able to track how many turns or fractions of a turn I had done to get it right.


By contrast the Triplanar VTA is adjustable on-the-fly, and it has two scales to show you where you are.

Thus far, the Pro-Ject 9cc....good enough for me. 😁

I'll throw my hat in the ring and say that the Thales Easy is one fine tonearm. I have it mated to a modded out VPI Scout in a separate tonearm pod and this thing sings. Eliminating the tracing distortion inherit  with pivoted arms has been a revelation. I have a Benz Micro Wood with ML stylus on it running into a Sutherland Engineering Little Loco phono stage and am gobsmacked every time I sit down for a listen and I've been spinning vinyl for 35+ years. Of course, YMMV...