Gimbal vs unipivot tonearms

case in point: I run a Dynavector DV 507MK2 with a Zyx Universe and a Mørch UP4 with a Scheu MC Analogue: on rock music, the Mørch is clearly preferred whereas the Dynavector on Classic and Jazz is miles ahead

like various different technologies (class a ab d amplification, planar vs dynamic driver speakers and so on) it is all about the quality and skill and care in implementation of the final product that determines how well it ultimately performs

Exactly. Tone arms are like everything else all down to how well an innumerable list of details is executed. Really good tone arms can be made from all sorts of different designs. There are examples of terrific arms made using wood, carbon fiber, aluminum alloy, pivoted, linear tracking, short arm, long arm, on and on. And on.   

The most useful thing you can learn sokogear is if you can pick up a sense of how to judge the value of all these different approaches. As for me, the one thing I have learned over the years is the fewer connections the better. So of all the different tone arm design approaches the one I care the most about is that the phono leads be hard wired. I will consider all kinds of arms but never again one that I also have to buy a phono interconnect for.  

You can take that however you like but all it means to me is all these other things people go on about- mass, compliance, length, etc, etc- they can all be done any which way and still sound good. But if at the end of the day you add all those extra connections you wind up shooting yourself in the foot.

@millercarbon, it sounds like you have had some issues with tonearm cables and headshell connections in the past. If all of your connection points are clean and free of oxidation than there really isn't much to be gained by wiring direct. Check a good setup with an ohm meter for resistance and compare to direct wired, should be zero difference. If you heard a difference after converting an arm to direct wiring than you had a problem!
Plus, I hate tonearms with non detachable headshells, makes swapping carts a royal pain. The better tonearms like the Victors and Micro Seiki's use a clamping type collet that is much superior to the type that just draws it in against a rubber washer.

BillWojo

The Thorens td203 with unipivot arm is a steal.