@pindac , Sorry pindac but you must live on a different planet. Just look at this discussion. Humans are endlessly competing with others and even themselves. At the route of it all is our survival instinct. If I did not compete with myself I would not be able to make the furnisher I do. Competition is healthy in us until it gets to killing each other. All the audio manufacturers compete with other manufacturers of similar equipment. They have no choice if they want to survive. I do know that many CEOs of audio manufacturers are very close friends with other audio CEOs. AJ Conte was very close with David Fletcher. Both made turntables but they were priced at distinctly different levels and did not compete directly with each other. In fact AJ used David's basic design for his turntables with David's blessing.
We all try to buy what we think is "better." Thus the manufacturers have to make their equipment better which is a good thing.
@rauliruegas Read racedoc's last post. Incredible isn't it. @racedoc, you offer absolutely no rational reason why the Viv arm should not be the disaster it is. You support it purely on an emotional basis, always the road to ruin. You obviously do not know what to listen for. Tracking angle error of that degree changes the timing between channels as the stylus is now reading one channel before the other. This is going to create a phase differential between the channels most prominent at higher frequencies working its way down as the error increases. It is that time and phase information that generates the image. With phase errors the image becomes less distinct. If you can not hear this in an AB comparison with a good normal pivoted arm like the Reed 2G or SME V it is because your system does not image correctly. Don't feel bad, very few systems do image correctly and very few audiophiles have heard a system that images correctly. Most loudspeaker/rooms are incapable of imaging correctly and that includes some very expensive ones.
The Viv arm make a few important points. An arm that does not skate is a good thing. The compromises the Viv arm makes to achieve this are unacceptable. A tonearm has to be held rigidly in all but two directions rotation vertically and rotation horizontally. It can have absolutely no motion in any other direction or the cartridge can not make an adequate representation of the information held in the groove. The Viv arm fails to do this and It's bearing design has no real benefit.
In short, the Viv arm is a Rube Goldberg device and will do down in history as such. It will not be alone. There are many other tonearms that fit in that category. It is what happens when someone with no idea what they are doing designs what they think is a simple device.