Another “How to choose an arm” question

@holmz

Excellent tonearm, should fit the Sota.

The Kuzma 4Points are very quick, transparent and importantly very easy to set up and adjust. It would be a massive upgrade on your SAEC - more detail, quicker, more dynamic. The 4Point is a medium mass arm which means it will suit a wide variety of cartridges. A SOTA/4Point combo would be very hard to beat without spending a significant amount more - its a combination that should satisfy you for years.

If I was in your position I would not look at a new TT, I would get your SOTA serviced, and updated if you want and add the 4Point - then you are done for many years.

Excellent tonearm, should fit the Sota.

Yeah @dover a friend tried the “Origin Live” for almost a year, and he told me that it was motocrossing out of the groove difficult to get set up.
He said the 4.9 fit his Sota and took 20 minutes to set up.

So it is known working solution. However he is using a VanDenHul which is super high compliance (super limber).

I’ll likely call SoundSmith to figure out which cartridges will work with it, as I am coming from a high mass arm.

Does any know whether there are any measurements like this for the SAEC we317 arm, that would enlighten me as to how a different arm would have the quieter bearings?

 

@holmz , all of the arms mentioned above have quiet bearings unless they have been damaged. The real issue with bearings is play. The tonearm has to hold the cartridge rigidly allowing only two degrees of freedom. This is why unipivot arms are not recommended by many of us. The Graham arm mentioned above is a stabilized (by magnets) unipivot arm and has a great reputation. My problem with it is price. I do not think it represents a reasonable value. The same is true of the Basis arms which are not really unipivots either. They are bipivots or unipivots stabilized by a secondary bearing. They do not IMHO represent a reasonable value as there are many arms of equivalent (maybe even better) performance at a much lower price. 

The tonearms I personally like best on the Sota are the SME V, the Kuzma 4 Point 9 and the Schroder CB. The Kuzma has one issue and that is the tonearm cable exits about the tonearm board and interferes with the dust cover. The other arms have cables that exit below the tonearm board resulting in a cleaner installation. I personally chose the Schroder CB for my Cosmos and could not be happier. This year at  AXPONA Sota will be demonstrating with the Schroder CB. Peter Ledermann is totally invested in Schroder tonearms for what it is worth. He demonstrates with a Schroder Reference. 

Copy @mijostyn he first step is for me to figure out whether a new arm would make a notable difference.
(I know that the CB-9 would fit just fine.)

Or if I would be better off just shoving that money into a better cartridge.

One actual tone arm designer fellow has said that it would be noticeable, but not massive and suggested just going with a upgrade in cart.

Last night I spoke with a dealer that mentioned that my line stage after my phono amp also has 30dB of gain, so i should not worry about needing any more gain on the phono stage.