"Sounded great" for you, but you can’t even adjust VTA on those cheap tonearms
Really, where have you read that?? The pro-ject 9, 9c or 9cc all have adjustable VTA! You loosen two allen screws at the base of tonearm mount. Pro-ject provides a shortened allen key to do this. They also have adjustable azimuth via a grub screw near the bearing yoke......wow! Talk about misinformed! The pro-ject aluminum (9), carbon fiber/aluminum (9c), and the carbon fiber 9cc are ALL better arms than the cheap S tonearm used on the technics. The only advantage of the technics is vta on the fly, that’s it. Also, a one piece tonearm sounds better than one with a detachable headshell. The technics does not have azimuth adjustment as far as I know, unless there is play in the detachable headshell. The entire arm on the pro- ject can be rotated to adjust azimuth. Also, Linn chose the pro-ject 9cc arm for their current Linn Majik turntable....it is a $700 arm, Linn did not think it was a sh*tty tonearm!