why is a 13" tonearm design really superior?

One designer(who makes 12 inch arms) told me that they didn't hear any sonic improvements above a length of 12 inches.

Hi Myles_B_Astor. The designer may listen to a WE 8000 and he will change his opinion quickly. Promise.

Best & Fun Only - Thuchan

Dfelkai, you suggested "Baerwald was helped by 12 guys from nasa".

I assume this was tongue-in-cheek since Baerwald was awarded his patent in 1939 and NASA was not created until 1958.

But then maybe you were simply following Thuchan's motto, best & fun only!

I believe Clearaudio does a 14" variant on one of their designs. Remember being quite surprised at the time.

Hi Thucan,

Hopefully someday will get around to hearing one :)

BTW, Bob Graham pointed out a while back that while a longer arm has many virtues, cartridge alignment is more critical in a 12 inch arm than a shorter arm. In simple terms, errors in aligment are amplified with a longer arm. That was why in part until recently, Bob didn't make a longer arm. OTOH, Bob has cornered the market on cartridge setup. It's too bad that he doesn't market his jig for other arms (once you've used it, there's no going back), but he doesn't want to give other arms an advantage.