sbank, Crazily, I admit, I have multiple turntables up and running and just as many tonearms. I use two with fixed headshells, Reed and Triplanar, and three with removable headshells. When I want to experiment with different cartridges, I am drawn to the simplicity of removable headshells. This feature offers the additional not insignificant advantage of experimenting with different headshells, if for no other reason than to establish a good effective mass vs compliance ratio to suit a particular cartridge. For 10-20 years, I had swallowed the notion that fixed headshells were the purist and purest way to go, but my experiences over the last 10-12 years tell me I hear no problems related to flexing at the joint between headshell and tonearm. The other consideration is that adding a headshell:arm wand interface adds another physical connector between cartridge and phono stage. To me, that would be more of an issue with removable headshells than structural instability. Hence, I tend to mount my lowest output LOMC cartridges in either the Triplanar or the Reed. But I have broken even that rule of thumb with no discernible problems, I must admit, although I do continue to believe in direct-est connection to the phono stage; the fewer the interfaces, the better. One caveat: all headshells do not securely fit all tonearm wands. You have to check the quality of the fit in each case.
