Why is the price of new tonearms so high

Raul,

the reason you dont see any analog items is I dont have a complete rig up and running yet but Im trying to put together something sensible to see if it can compete with my digital. So far I have 1 TT, 1 cart and 2 phono stages.

Perrew, are you thinking of an all-tube fully-differential phono stage too?

Atmasphere, its not a necessity but the two I own at the moment are single ended, one tubed one ss. Anything particular in mind?

Pär,
Just in case the posting rules might not allow him to say so, Atmasphere is the manufacturer of a tube-based fully-differential balanced phono stage embedded in his all-tube fully-differential balanced preamps (either the MP-1 or MP-3) found here. I am not aware of a separate phono stage product.

Perrew, as T_bone has pointed out, we do make exactly that, continuously for the last 20 years.

Its not every day that someone asks about something like that, so I had to ask. Fortunately, operating a cartridge in balanced mode is at least one thing that does not make tone arms more expensive :)