the perfect tonearm

Dear Mikeyc8, Nandric was right in his suggestions of the Lustre/Koshin GST-801 and the MA-505 (s or x).
Adding the recommended headshell and fine tuned with the Ikeda S-50 headshell wires and an AQ Leopard dbs or similar pure silver tonearm cable will give you a very good tonearm/cable combination too - for well below $1500.
The Lustre is the slightly "better" tonearm, but is less versatile.
Both do offer your prefered "S"-shape and the Lustre is very similar in handling, built quality and rigidy to the old Ikeda tonearms of the early 1980ies.
You can't do wrong with either.
If you shopuld decide to go for the classic MA-505, make sure you get either an "S" or an "X" suffix.
Both do feature pure silver inside leads.
Cheers,
D.

Dertonarm, obfuscations aside, the reason the Triplanar is more precise is because when you set it up, it stays set up and does not require fiddling to keep the azimuth correct. This is a problem for the G2.2 when the LP thickness is varied or if there are warps of any size.

The design of the Phantom seems to be aimed at addressing this issue in particular.

I owned the G2.2 for years and showed with it at shows- my comments come from direct experience. I liked his setup device a lot BTW. It forced you to go out of your way to set the arm up wrong. You only hope that his calculations were correct, but IME they had to be quite close.

The Triplanar has a provision to set azimuth exactly, and it will not vary nor oscillate as is often seen in the G2.2. In addition, the Triplanar has and had the first VTA tower that allows for precise VTA adjustment on the fly, and done in such a manner that it does not interact with other adjustments on the arm.

Dear Mickeyc8: The Lustre GST-801 that Nandric suggest isa very good and versatile one for what you asking:

VTA on the fly, easy ( magnetic ) anti-skate device, easy VTF setting ( magnetic too. ), classic looking not a straight tonearm, comes with different counterweights to try different cartridges, Azymuth set-up, with easy carridge/tonearm effective mass handling due that you can use different headshells that weight different too.

Iuse this tonearm for many years with very good results with cartridges ranging from 3grs to 30 grs and with cartridge compliance ranging from 4cu to 40cu.

THis Lustre kind of " friendly " device is something that I can say is a versatile tonearm and you can find it second hand for no more than 500-600 and the other 1.5K you can use for a good tonearm cable, LP's and even a new cartridge!!!

Good luck.

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.

F

so lots of good choices here it seems....
FR 64fx, Lustre GST 801, Micro Seiki 505, Graham 2.2, Triplanar and IT245.

Raul, I noticed you posted in in earlier thread about the Lustre with a XV1s, to clarify did you say it sounded good with the XV1s?

Dear Mikeyc8:Yes, it makes a good match with the own magnesium lustre headshell.

Btw, If you choose for the Ikeda headshell wires be carefully to choose the right ones for the cartridge you have because the S-50 are a little short and not works with every cartridge out there, maybe is a better and secure choice the S-40 that are a little longer.

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.