General question on Carbon fiber tonearms versus aluminum

This has been a very interesting and enlightening post.  Earlier when I made a comment about bicycle frames, a lot of what was mentioned in this post echo's what folks have found comparing frames made of steel, aluminum, and carbon fiber.   Granted, early fiber bicycles were not as good as steel or aluminum and had a tendency to crack and break, but over a ten year period, it is hard to beat fiber today for a  comfortable ride, yet still have a frame that climbs like aluminum, and is non fatiguing like steel.   With carbon, the vibrations that come up from the pavement dissipate (think damped) and don't tire your legs, arms, and butt like aluminum.  But climbing hills, the last thing you want is a soft frame as what little horsepower you develop goes into making the frame bend rather than to the rear wheel.   Try riding 100-120 miles in a day, climb 10 to 12,000 vertical feet, and do it in high altitude and this lesson will be branded in your brain.   That was my basic training ride back when I did extreme endurance  cycling.

This is pure speculation on my part, but it is possible that the live sound from aluminum, if indeed  it is from the arm itself, could be energy from the cartridge that is causing the arm to color the sound in a rather pleasing way.   The dead sound from fiber, if indeed it is from the arm itself, could be the lack of this coloration.  If you remember, Ray Dolby had the same problem selling his Dolby Noise Reduction to tape manufacturers.   That subtle lack of noise and distortion in the upper frequencies were considered a lack of "air" and consequently colored the sound in a bad way.  He had a real problem for a while until folks realized what he was selling was a lack of coloration and distortion.

Frankly, I don't know which technology is better.   The best sound I had was from my aluminum Grado arm and top tier Grado cartridges.   The carbon arm got the second rate cartridges.   Recently, I upgraded cartridges and now that carbon arm is producing the finest sound my stereo has ever produced.   The Grado setup sounds great and I would be very happy with it, indeed it is better than ever, but I do have that carbon setup right next to it and it beats Grado in a noticeable way.   

It is a tough call since I'd like to upgrade my arm to a modern, transcription length unit.

Clearly execution matters, but if we know what it takes to make a great tone arm, then this question is answerable. Carbon fiber simply has more strength and stiffness as aluminum at the same weight. If that’s what it takes, then yes. But I expect it’s not that cut and dried. There’s got to be cartridge-arm interplay, so I’ll bet it just depends on getting a match. Like the bicycle frame example. The most comfortable is steel. It flexes. Riding cross-country 100 miles a day day after day? I’ll take steel. Racing around an oval for 60 seconds? Probably carbon. Want an 11-inch tone arm that accommodates a “heavy” cartridge? Ask an engineer, but it’s great to have the options we do. The first time an aerospace engineer handed me an early carbon fiber rod and its titanium (or whatever metal it was ) counterpart, I was flabbergasted. And it was a rotor control rod on a helicopter! It goes, the helicopter goes (down). Yet the carbon rod weighed, I don’t know, ounces vs. pounds. It was that dramatic. Amazing stuff.

That subtle lack of noise and distortion in the upper frequencies were considered a lack of "air" and consequently colored the sound in a bad way.  

This isn't the same as acoustic ringing or damping. Dolby effectively filtered frequencies (-3 dB at 600 Hz/ -6 dB at 1.2 kHz/ -8 dB at 2.4 kHz/ -10 dB at 5 kHz) resulting in a removal of ambient information. Back in the 80s, we never used Dolby B or C as both sounded worse than the clear and airy unadulterated sound—albeit with tape noise.

it is possible that the live sound from aluminum, if indeed  it is from the arm itself, could be energy from the cartridge that is causing the arm to color the sound in a rather pleasing way.  The dead sound from fiber, if indeed it is from the arm itself, could be the lack of this coloration.

I'll take the live sound any day for it's pleasing nature over the dead sound of possible lack of coloration. 

noromance

Dolby effectively filtered frequencies (-3 dB at 600 Hz/ -6 dB at 1.2 kHz/ -8 dB at 2.4 kHz/ -10 dB at 5 kHz) resulting in a removal of ambient information. Back in the 80s, we never used Dolby B or C as both sounded worse than the clear and airy unadulterated sound—albeit with tape noise.

Dolby NR does not "filter" frequencies and the result after NR is essentially flat when the system is properly aligned. That requires precise adjustment of Dolby level and bias/eq for the specific tape being used. The prevalence of cheap cassette decks and lazy or misinformed users contributed to Dolby getting a bad rap for filtering highs, which obviously remains to this day. But it is really unwarranted. Both Dolby B and C remain very, very effective when properly used. I still have an outboard Nakamichi NR-200 and on the rare occasion that I play a cassette I'm amazed at the fidelity of mix tapes I made decades ago.