Why the sudden popularity of 12 inch arms

Dear Halcro: +++++ " ...until I inserted something better. " +++++

I totally agree with you till here.

+++++ " And that something better was inevitably NEWER. " +++++

IMHO I think that that something better could be newer or not so newer, the subject is: BETTER. Because like you posted: " That doesn't of course mean that EVERYTHING newer is better. " +++++

Halcro I think that you an me are talking almost on the same.

Do you think that I'm using " old " tonearms because I like to use " old " ones, NO I'm using it because till today I don't find nothing better ( New/newer or " old " ).: that's all, I already try it: Morch, SME, Triplanar, VPI, Graham, etc, etc and overall I prefer what I use today.

Now, from my cartridges, " new ones ": Allaerts Finish Gold, KRSP, Colibri, XV-1, 90X, etc, etc. I like it but my " old " ones like: Goldbug, Victor, technics, ortofon, etc etc, like me too and my new and old MM ones are part of that " I like it ".

I like you, Sirspeedy and many others own a very old speakers ( heavy tweaked ) that are not the best out there but that are very near to that best one.

I know and agree that is almost impossible to have at home only cutting edge audio items but I know people that have it and its quality whole system performance is poor, in the other way I know people with not " only cutting edge " systems that its quality system performance is really good.
Like I already posted the ideal is the combination of in deep know-how with no money barrier. But if know-how has no substitute money has it!!!

IMHO know-how has no substitute, you can't buy your own ( self ) know-how, you have to learn and obtain through the everyday long time own experiences and from other experiences too. IMHO the first experience/know-how to obtain a decent or high quality music/sound reproduction on our own systems is the in deep experience on live music/live events, preferably with acoustic music.

Some of my audio friends are people with very low music experience and when you hear/heard their systems you know that, no one of those systems sounds really good far from there because they don't have " music appreciation " that you and me have.

Many people out there and in forums like Agon speaks about quality music/sound reproduction at very " high level " ( at least is what they think. ) and when you ask them: how many hours of live music do you hear every week ( well no. ), every month? they have not and answer but all of them are " experts " and they believe it.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

Halcro
" I had my Regar Planar 3 turntable for 30 years (despite hearing Linns and Sotas) because nothing new sounded significantly better to me. "

This combo I have heard and the Linn is a LOT better to my ears than the rega 3. I demoed both models at home back at home in 1985 before I moved from my old $129 pioneer to the stratosphere price of the then Linn.

Fortunately or unfortunately it was hearing the Linn that got me to this obsessive compulsive luv of music and hifi to play it on.

BTW, Just bought the new Gutter twins LP ( Mark lanegan from Screaming Trees and Greg Dulli from Afghan wigs) - brilliant, dark and haunting. Sonics quite good as well.

Also picked up the new Akron family, Hot Chip and mark Callaghan ( Smog) LP's great stuff.
New Rhianna and Timbaland Lp's are great as well - no great sonically unfortunately - a little compressed.

Gidday Mate! Yeah, I had to let that one go... Mr Halcro has helped me too much. The Linn should be night and day to the 3. Mr. Halcro waits for the one he can hit out of the park. The new rig will be the last, I bet. And there's NO WAY anybody goes back from a Raven. Had to let that by as well... Hey, do you ever buy LPs with MUSIC on them? Z.

Z

Define MUSIC?? Please don't tell me you are talking about Dianna Krall or alike??

I beleive I gave a hint of some new release pop/rock/alternative music I like.

BTW, I am going to have to go over to halcro's place to listen to the Raven/ Cobra since we both live in Sydney.

All else being equal, a 12" inch arm should be better than a 9" arm (who can argue with more inches is better, guys?). The trouble is, there is no way to make all else equal. It is hardly a technological breakthrough to make an arm longer, but to do so, one must increase mass, particularly inertial or effective mass because the heavy cartridge will be hanging way out there on the end of a lever. Either that or a lot of mass has to be removed from elsewhere which compromises rigidity.

It is much easier today to make the compromise in favor of longer arms than in the past because of the available material. One can use carbon fiber impregnated material, cast magnesium, titanium, etc. But, it is not necessarily the case that any given arm can be scaled up to a longer length with ease; some designs might suffer too much in the other areas of concern, such as rigidity.

So, it is a matter of designers making their choice of tradeoffs. But, to say that one aspect of design, specifically length, is so important that a long arm is inherently superior, as someone mentioned that Roy Gregory has suggested, I don't buy. I will take a "short" Triplanar, Vector, etc., any day over the VPI arm.