Comparison of sonic qualities of some tonearms

@viridian  That 10cu was measured as all japanese cartridges at 100hz so at 10hz means over 15cu. Btw, I owned that Onyx and the Black and Rosewood too.

I think that my first MC was the Denon 103 with 5cu that means over 8cu and my tonearm in those times was a Pioneer in the PL 630 that was away to be a high mass tonearm.

Anyway, was and is part of what you and me learned and it's ok. No problem.

R.

Assuming that tonearms have a “sonic signature” is not helpful. While cartridges sound different depending on its component construction, tonearms are vibration mitigation devices and are NOT designed to sound like anything.  Usually one’s limiting budget and cartridge which determines tonearm options.

Kenny, assuming you had all the money in the world, how would you recognize a tonearm that had “no sound of its own”?

I currently have 3 tonearms that all have been used with a heavily modified and upgraded Lenco 78 that have been running exactly on speed for several years. It did take me several years to getting it running correctly as I was learning on the go. The recent switch to an Origin Live Illustrious Mk3 arm has been a very enjoyable experience. The OP wanted to have a comparison of arms in the same system as in TT, cartridge, Phono Preamp, and arm. I rather recently had Whest in Great Britain upgrade my Whest 30RDT SE into a 30SE RDT PRO. It was a total gut job other than the chassis with better and more potent partsand circuit board being used in the returned version. The immediate impression with a Charisma Reference 2 cartridge and Andy Kim’s microridge stylus with boron cantilever as upgrades on the retip, was much more stable action of the stylus in the groove along with these sound characteristics: more dynamic with deeper and more powerful bass, consistently excellent across the midband with lucid and transparent sound, and the highs were also very good with the ability to recognize different maker’ instruments from others. The OL Illustrious Mk3 also is VERY easy to use and stays the same once you lock in adjustments. Every album sounds more like live instruments and the soundstage is both deep and wide. Instruments and singers are located distinctly. I’m sure there might be a better sounding arm out there but it will be much more expensive. I’ve had a Maplenoll Ariadne air bearing TT/arm for years that was my prior setup SQ wise of all time. Since, I’ve had 2 Origin Live Silver arms, VPI Classic original, Trans-Fi Terminator w/ Tomahawk arm & all upgrades they offered, Pete Riggle Woody arm. Tiring of the various things that needed occasional adjustment lead me back to the OL Illustrious Mk3. The combo I now use is by far the best sounding analog setup I’ve owned. Hope this was useful.

Bob