Why is the price of new tonearms so high

>>(to quote the Rolling Stones...): we're only in it for the money.......<<

Wrong band.

Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention
1968

Dear Audiofeil, you're right - it was Frank !
Cheers,
D.

Dear Dertonarm: I own several cartridges and tonearms ( vintage and today ones. ) not because I'm a collector but because is a learning subject where I need different tonearms and different cartridges too, I use it for enjoy the music and I use it like tools in some of my audio projects.

+++++ " I do not think that any toenarm designer starts the project on designing a new contender for the state of the art because he is "not satisfied" with the current available. " +++++

What you think on the subject has no relevance. I start the tonearm design project because what I already posted, I don't start the tonearm project for " a new contender " but to achieve our targets that can't be reached/fullfill with what are on the market.

+++++ " we're only in it for the money. " +++++

fortunately not all of us are like you.

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.

Dear Raul, tears are running down my cheeks ...........
What great display of humanity and earnest strive for the better in mankind.
Unbelieveable - I never thought I will ever (even not in virtual reality...) meet such an almost holy audiophile soul like you.
All those highly agressive emails directed at me coming under your pseudonym in the past must then be the expression of Mr Hyde sleeping in Dr.Raul-Jekyll ??
Almost unreal.
Almost.
I am sure you will give your "world's best tonearm" to the audiophile community for the mere parts cost and free shipping.
So we will be looking at a price tag below $1k for sure.
As you already do - if unsuccessful - with your "world's best preamplifier".
A pity that the world won't realize..
Cheers,
D.

Because of many threads in the past, some now deleted, most of us know that in these analog threads there are two people who are much more alike than not...
a) One person loves music, enjoys analog more than digital, has acquired a bunch of interesting knowledge over the years, has tried (and still owns) a bunch of turntables, tonearms, carts, has helped build a phono/line-stage, is designing/building a tonearm, has ambitions to design/build other stuff, occasionally sells on Audiogon stuff he has talked about in the past, and does NOT think the FR-60 series tonearms are good tonearms.
b) The other loves music, enjoys analog more than digital, has acquired a bunch of knowledge over the years, has tried (and probably still owns) a bunch of tonearms, carts, has built a TT, is designing/building a tonearm, has designed/built/had built a line/phono stage, and a bunch of other equipment to go with it, has sold things he talks about on Audiogon in the past, and thinks the FR-60 tonearms are better than the other gives them credit for being...

I think there are three possibilities here:
1) it is a shadow conspiracy. There are two people out there with some decent knowledge who at times are polite and can actually virtually exist in the same space. They contribute to a thread which becomes informative, then almost without fail they suddenly turn on each other and do their utmost to kill off the thread and get it removed from the public space. The conspiracy is to remove the analog threads from the archives so that they can later publicly "make up", then release an expensive book called "R&D on Analog", effectively selling us back all the the knowledge that had accumulated in these fora, but making it available to us analog lovers for the low, low price of $100 a pop.

2) it is a biblical sign ("And Brother shall turn against Brother") of imminent unholy retribution being visited upon mankind for our accumulated sins against each other... or...

3) it is a couple of putzes who, if they were neighbors, would compete by having beautiful (but different) gardens which everyone could admire and talk to them about, and would do the rest of their neighbors the service of not talking to each other, but because this is the internet, can't seem to manage even that.

Hmmmm.... Occam's Razor would suggest...