9", 10" or 12" tonearm?

Cost is one factor...but Tangenital arms or linear tracking arms have their own set of problems. It is very difficult and expensive to get a linear tracking arm to be completely "friction" free which is one of the prinicple advantages of these arms as well as the tracing geometry that is more suited to the cutting lathe. Linear arms use either a type of air bearing or electric servo to help them track the groove of the record. The old Rabco arm was a popular arm in its day..but had enough internal resonance to be a factor on the better tables. Walkers air bearing linear arm is state of the art today..but the arm alone costs more than some complete analog set ups..So, it mainly comes down to being able to design a linear arm thats up to snuff and yet compete with the more popular pivoted designs out there today, which are quite good in themselves!

As SdCampbell mentioned..the longer 12" arms provide less tracking error due to their shallower offset..but many tables with compact plinths and armboards cannot acccept that size. If you can though, it may be worthwhile to go with the 12"

Linear is on best stuff out there like most expensive tables out there (Walker etc) but as mentioned to make it work reliablkity is diffeerent issue the ET arms are still comanding a high price but who wants top deal with pumps and surge tanks?The there was B&O and Revox.I always wondered about those designs (maybe I should look them up in OLD archives) but since the audio world didn't beat a path to same designs it probaly didn't work out to well.Keep my Technics SL5 in my Bebroom system and play lesser Lp's I trust to this technolgy (though I use newer carts with clean styli) to have otion to crash to some tune other than CD and FM.Hope the denizens have pointed you to a solution but if your like my freind you might invest in a different arm.
chazzbo

Dear Sdcampbell: I agree with you, but:

+++++ " the longer arm may provide less tracing distortion, and therefore better sound, than the shorter arm. " +++++

The theory told us that that statement is true. In three of my tonearms where you can interchange arm wands ( pipes ) : Audiocraft AC4400/3300, Micro Seiki MAX 282/237 and Moerch DP-6, I own and used long and short arm wands trying to " see " if there are any improvements on the long ones: till today I never find that the longest had less distorted sound, there are very slightly differences in the sound that I think is for a diferent resonance point due to the diferent effective mass of the arm wands. I can't tell of those diferences like a " better sound ".

All these tonearms and the today top tonearms are very well made and it is very dificult by " ear " to tell if the theory be fullfiled on practice.

Other points are that a longer tonearm has its own problems about: torsion forces and slightly high self resonances due to its " long " and bearing " forces " diferences against a short one .

I think that if exist a good tonearm design and a good execution design both type of tonearms: short and long, perform always almost the same.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

So in general it is not true that 9" arms are more agile and dynamic sounding than 12" arms and that 12" arms are slower and more colored sounding (with emphasis towards midbass and bass)? I've seen that some audiophiles are using the SME 3012 + SPU strictly for classical music. Does this mean that the combo is not suitable for pop, rock and disco/techno?

Chris

But. Lets say the Avid Volvere SP. I dont think you have a choise. I guess its only take a long or short arm dilemma. 
Maybe i`m wrong. But i guess a TT is made for either 9" or 12"