Basis Super Arm 9

Robert Harley sure seems smitten, and he is the kind of experienced reviewer I have come to trust. Especially when he describes the sound the way he does. I am pretty sure the stabilizing bearing design he thinks nobody ever thought of is just a variation on what Mark Baker has been doing with Origin Live from well before the SA9. But whatever. Point is the sound he describes is the sound you want. 

I especially like the integral phono leads. My experience is the extra RCA connections and expense of having to find a suitable phono interconnect make the integral lead the way to go. The phono cartridge puts out such a faint signal, the last thing you want is to run it through half a dozen extra connections before it even hits the phono stage.

I can vouch for Harley's comment about the arm being a huge factor. My experience was different but similar. The Graham 2.2 was a really fine arm. No complaints. Waited a long time to upgrade, just seemed like how much better could another arm be? Then the Origin Live Conqueror with its integrated phono lead showed me- it is in a whole other league! 

That is the only suggestion I would make, see what you can learn about how SA9 compares with something like say a new Conqueror, or even better. You are in a price range where there are no bad arms. You are down to splitting hairs over just how much magic can you get. With pretty much all of them I think the answer is, "A lot!"

Below is a link to a thread with many comments about the Superarm 9 from people who own it, as well as comparisons to other tonearms they owned.

I had a Basis Vector 3 and it was a great tonearm.

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/tonearm-options-for-basis-2800/post?highlight=superarm&po...

Nice job with the link jperry!   A lot of great information.  Love my vector 4.  

Both Basis arms are excellent. They are not true unipivot arms. They are "Bipivot" arms. Torsion is controlled by a second bearing. They are neutral balance arms but their vertical bearings are above record level which means wart wow will be a little worse.  The question for xagwell is will the Superarm 9 make a significant sonic improvement? I certainly think it is a better arm by design as it is obviously stiffer. It's effective mass is probably a little bit higher just to look at it which might eliminate the most compliant cartridges.(no big deal) It is a better looking arm so pride in ownership will be better. But, I do not believe there will be an improvement in sonic performance worth the price. For what it is worth the Superarm 9 has a spindle to pivot distance of 222 mm, the Rega standard. It was in contention for me as it will fit on a Sota Turntable. I chose the Schroder CB. It also has a 222 mm spindle to pivot distance. Why? It is a better value. Because it has less peripheral mass it has a lower polar moment of inertia meaning it will follow record undulations better. It is also a neutral balance arm with the vertical bearing at the level of the record. Warp wow will be at a minimum. It has a frictionless antiskating device, the Superarm 9 does not. IMHO it has better bearings although that is arguable. It will fit on the 2800 a very nice turntable. Would the CB make a noticeable difference in sound quality? Probably not. These are all excellent arms. 

I do not believe there will be an improvement in sonic performance worth the price. 

But you have never heard it, you cannot know this.
Most who have upgraded from the Vector say the arm is a substantial upgrade, including experienced reviewers.

You make many assumptions based on a small set of design parameters, but ignore many such as bearing quality, stiffness, ability to deal with energy from the cartridge, build quality to name a few.

More importantly you appear to make sweeping conclusions without having heard the product. Assessing the design parameters of an audio product is fine, but drawing definitive conclusions without any experience of the product is unfair in my view to any product.