Why is the price of new tonearms so high

Dear Axel: Yes I was in bed! The subject of dynamic/static balanced way in a tonearm design is one of the factors where we have to take a choice or to build both designs ( like the new ones from Ortofon. ).

It is obvious that the static one works strictly by the gravity forces where in theory and due to the record " waves " makes that the VTF " suffer " changes accros the record traks and according with those " waves " but this kind of behavior prevail ( in minor way. ) in the dynamically balanced design.

That behavior (vtf ) change in both designs according with the kind and quality of the tonearm bearings, the tonearm effective length and the total tonearm/cartridge effective mass. Now, we have to take in count too the left-right tonearm/cartridge movements that affects too.

Axel, this dynamic/ static tonearm subject is important but in real playback conditions we can achieve extremely good results with either design if the design is a good one, if the excution of that design is a good one too and if the tonearm build materials are the right ones.

But a customer can't know if all those tonearm design facts are acomplish in a tonearm till he put to work with a cartridge and see which is the quality performance level on that combination.

By design the tonearm ( static/dynamically ) must be neutral: adding no distortions ( any kind ), and this ( neutrality ) is the main goal in a tonearm design. A very hard task due to many relationship between different parts in the tonearm itself and with the additional cartridge own behavior of its design.

Regards and enjoy the music,
raul.

Raul,

are you building a tonearm yourself and if so could you shortly elaborate on the design goals/route you have chosen?
Tks
Pär

Dear Mapam, you are absolutely right. This is the one point that I simply don't understand.
Why do so many audiophiles,- who talk in length about the sometimes subtle differences in cartridges or super expensive cables or preamplifiers - say that its o.k. if the alignment seems fine but its not necessary to adjust for the fraction of a mm.
The polished area of a modern day stylus is 1 x 6 µm ....... that is 1/1000 mm x 6/1000 mm.
You do not get the right picture if you do not work precisely.
A mm off and you are no longer in the street, in fact you are no longer in the same part of the city........
The point is not that the dynamically balanced tonearm has small advantages with warped records - the advantages are fairly large.
Furthermore, each and every records surface and groove-walls aren't perfect flat.
During the run of a record groove the tonearm/cartridge combination does in fact perform a constant hill and valley parcours - hundreds of small up and downs.
Each up and down does alter the tracking force - just a bit of course, but then we are talking subtle changes ONLY in all of analog high-end.
That is why a dynamically balanced tonearm sounds "quiter" (for some ears with a less dynamic set-up it may sound "less live-like") and more relaxed than a static balanced tonearm whose cartridge does track with constant changes in its VTF.
This is not just my opinion, but everybody will agree if he makes a small drawing of the - thank you Perrew! - force vectors involved.
We are fooling ourselves if we do not work absolutely precise and if we do not apply those technical features which are easily available.
Precision is not easy and may consumpt some time and effort.
But it is the heart of the game and the door to true high-end sound.
The one and only door - too often missed by too many set-ups.

"God lives in the detail....... "(M.v.d. Rohe, an architect)

Settle for less and you waste a large portion of your investment.
Its the same as running your high performance car with 20 year old tires well past any profile......
Cheers,
D.

Perrew, one could use the tape outs of our preamp, but one function of the linestage that most people don't realize is that it must control the interconnect cable as well. In a stand-alone phono section this does become a source of coloration. That is why our preamps are full-function.

You can convert from balanced to SE at the input of the amplifier with an adapter or cable made for the purpose. It is nice not to be limited by cable length or quality (cost)- something not possible with single-ended cables.

So it sounds like the dynamic balanced tone arms have always positive VTF due to 'preload' provided when record is spinning by the spring. As Raul indicated, dynamically balanced may not be exactly the right term (not 100% balanced at every slice of time but still close enough to maintain contact, always), but the point is there is always positive VTF v/s -negative at times( warped records, highly dynamic music contents. etc). Thanks, no wonder I never come across this term as all my three tone arms are 'statically balanced' ( Clearaudio master TQ1. , SPJ by La Luce and Transrotor RB250)

I would guess terminolgy will still apply for tangential ton arms. Any tangential arms come with spring loaded VTF? Another question, while I am at it is: Why sound and freq balance changes higher the VTF gets? How do you know what is right VTF other than by ear? What is max VTF? What if higher than allowable max sounds right?