Kuzma 4Point Tri-Planar

Dear Dover, I would second your observations and conclusions. They go hand in hand with mine.
Which may result that there will be always listeners who prefer fast energy transfer and listeners who go rather for a damped armtube - with sometimes gives a more pleasing, forgiving sound.
I am definitely in the camp of as fast as possible energy transfer.
Each his own.
Wood is certainly not superior as tonearm wand material versus metal ( to be determined what metallurgy ...) - it is a different approach, with a different concept and leads most likely to different results.
Good that there are different ways and different ideas of the "ideal" - isn't it?

Dertonam,

Thanks - you raise a good point in terms of "different ideas". I have had in the past many audio customers from Europe, US, UK, Asia as well as Australia & New Zealand. I have noticed that different cultures have different priorities, not only in musical choice, but how the music is presented through their systems. So yes I agree, whilst we can agree on the science, we may still have different preferences in terms of building our audio systems. No system is perfect, so there will always be some compromise.

Sorry Dan_ed, we'll just have to disagree on that one...