Another “How to choose an arm” question

@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.

Dear @holmz : " how would I know if the upgrade is worthwhile? "

"" it offered me some substantially better sound than the SAEC WE317. ""

""" What would that do in how the sound is manifested? """

"""" first step is for me to figure out whether a new arm would make a notable difference. "

Those are your statements from your first post to the last that no one not even you can have a precise answer. Is useless asking again and again same " question ".

I think that almost all the posts here already gave you all what any one could need to decide about a change or not of tonearm.

You can have the answers you are looking for till you have the new tonearm in your room/system and make several tests against your tonearm/cartridge today combination. There is no other way, just common sense. Or decide not to change it. Is up to you.

You have not that kind of common sense due to your low knowledge level on that issue and the only way to learn is by your own: testing and testing, etc, etc. Even you posted about:

""""" It sounds like I should give up trying to understand it. """

Go for other cartridge, you are satisfied with your arm. LOMC cartridges always are a learning lesson, try it and you will learn.

R.

Raul is right. At some point you just have to jump into the water. It is what we all do.

Whether or not you hear a difference depends on how bad your situation is now and how good your hearing is. None of us can determine this. 

Your line stage gain is not the issue. It is the signal to noise ratio of your phono stage. Your line stage will be more than happy to amplify all the nose. 

Raul is right. At some point you just have to jump into the water. It is what we all do.

That was sort of the question @mijostyn … whether there were any measurements that showed the bearing chatter.
I suspect most just go for sonics, fewer are interested in whether there are actual resonances.

I’ll go slowly until I get the measurement gear and the LP.
 

Thanks!