Why the sudden popularity of 12 inch arms

Dear Albert: In some ways we are talking and agree on the main subjects.
I only want to be precise that I'm not against the 12" tonearm ( I still have it and like it ), I'm only saying that it is not better than a 9-10" one only because is longer. Btw, nice to see that you have the pivoted SME one.

Design, execution and well matched cartridge ( obviously, like you posted : set up. ) is the " name of the game " in any tonearm.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

Albert

Interesting that Valin in TAS liked the TW Acustik / phantom as much or better than his reference - the fully decked out Walker.

Is the TW table that much better than the walker table? - given that the walker arm kills the Phantom.

Or is Valin due to give back or sell his permanent loan and he is looking for another :-)

I did not read what Valin wrote, but if he likes the TW Acustik more than the Walker, that will be good for TW's sales.

As for your comment that the Walker arm kills the Phantom, I don't know if that is true and probably no way to test. The Walker arm only works on a Walker turntable and the Walker table will not accommodate a Phantom :^).

Or is Valin due to give back or sell his permanent loan and he is looking for another :-)

Unknown, I am not close to Valin. It's not by choice, I just don't know him well enough to have "inside" knowledge.

When I spoke to the owner of TW Acustik at the show, he had several tonearms mounted, including a Phantom, a Tri-Planar and something else (I don't remember). I ask what he liked best and he said "The Phantom, with Air Tight PC-1"

I certainly agree with him on the Air Tight PC-1, I have two of them now and no Koetsu. If you know how crazy I was about Koetsu you know how big a change that was. I also gave the PC-1 product of the year award at PFO where I review.

I did not get these as "samples" or reviewer freebees :^). I bought them at a reduced price, but no better than clever audiophiles and dealers get.

Albert

I was quoting you re the walker kills the Phantom. Or did u mean the air tangent??

What does the air tight bring to the sonic table that beats your Koetsu Jade's??

I have not heard one and have heard differing opinions

Raul, We are waiting for this list of "crappy" 12s. Although I doubt there is much risk of any of us picking up any of these crappy/vintage/obsolete throwaways, you owe us an answer. I see looking at your system pics a very real reason you may be having so much trouble making accurate comparisons that might lead to actually improving your system. Any first-year engineering student would understand the negative effects of having more than one tonearm mounted. You essentially have four antennae picking up room energy, at four different freqs and feeding all these resonant freqs into your phono stage. In the form of distortion! Take all that junk off and have a listen. You can thank me in the morning! Z.