10 Inch Tonearms


Hi All,
Most tonearm manufacturers make a ten inch tonearm. I am aware as to why someone would want a twelve inch tonearm or a nine inch but where does the ten inch apply? If I wanted to replace my nine inch tonearm with a ten inch, would it matter and if so, how?
goofyfoot
Viv also make 9” and longer versions of their tonearm, all the way to 14”. Viv is an underhung tonearm, entirely different from Kuzma or nearly all others, that overhang the spindle. Underhung tonearms generate much more tracking angle error than overhung tonearms, which error is directly proportional to length. I think Nandric nailed it; some TTs simply do not fit 9” tonearms, so there is a market for 10 and 10.5 tonearms for those TTs. And I do NOT agree that 12” tonearms are inherently superior to 9” tonearms “in every way”. Thus some choose 10 or 10.5 as a compromise .
EDIT.  I misspoke. Of course TAE for overhung tonearms is also proportional to length, which accounts for the existence of 12" tonearms.  What I was thinking is that the very large amounts of TAE that result if you use a 7-inch underhung tonearm like the Viv are drastically reduced if you use the 14-inch version. If you're obsessed with minimizing TAE across the surface of an LP, then you might opt for a 12-inch overhung tonearm (with the attendant increase in effective mass and greater propensity for resonance), or a linear tracker.
goofyfoot-

If tonearm length concerns you, consider a linear tracking setup.
It mimics the disc lathe cutting the master lacquer.

Oh wait....there's "compromises" with that too!

You simply can't win over audio madness. 
tablejockey, the term ‘concern’ is a bit of an exaggeration. I’m mainly interested in knowing whether a 10 inch arm would be a possible option given that I’ve seen a number of 10 inch tone arms on the used market. As far as fitting a ten inch arm instead of a nine inch, doesn’t seem like a big deal seeing that it’s only an inch longer.
You actually asked why 10 inch arms exist. Of course, it is an option, because they do exist.