What Does It Take To Surpass A SME V?

I think you perceive hostility where none is intended.

I guess when you write that you regularly encounter an SP10R that is served by a Glanz tonearm on a pod, you are not referring to your own system, because you also said that you do not use an outboard arm pod.  Fine either way. Apart from the possible problem of mechanically dissociating the tonearm from the TT bearing, I would also be concerned about alignment being affected over the long term of use, if occasionally the pod is nudged from its optimal location with respect to the spindle. That is if I were a stickler regarding alignment in the first place.

@atmasphere , sure but it does not change the fact that the horizontal EF far exceeds the vertical EF. You still have to counter balance the cartridge.

@pindac, It is not fantastical thinking pindac. It is rational thinking based on 5 decades of experience. I have made plenty of mistakes along the way. Knowing what performance characteristics are important and evaluating equipment prior to purchase is the most efficient way of going about this. Most of us do not have the money to piss it away indiscriminately. 

Regardless of what you think detached arm pods are a terrible idea and I have explained the thinking behind this. I am in no way shape or form the only individual that feels this way. 

You can rest assured that when I behave this way there is no reasonable alternative, just wishful thinking.

@lewm , there are people ready to try anything to make their product stand out. Separating vertical and horizontal resonance by a little avoids there being one large peak, you get two smaller ones but blended together. In the case of the ET2 and other air bearing arms the EFs are so widely separated you can not find a happy medium. If you set the arm up to achieve an RF of 10 in the vertical the EF in the horizontal will be so low that the cartridge winds up leading the arm. You can actually see the cantilever drift as it pulls the arm along. I have actually seen them pogo ( a Clearaudio arm) This assumes that the arm is dead level, another big problem with these arms. This places the cartridge suspension in a very unfavorable position. I have never used a Dynavector arm but there is no way you would ever get me to buy one. 

@mulveling , That is wrong. When you lighten the counterweight you drop both the horizontal and vertical EFs. You might be able to live with this discrepancy but it will adversely affect  performance.