Thom,
I think as long as people enjoyed themselves and are adult enough to deal with and understand what went on, I think you did no wrong by letting it go on, even if it may not have turned out to be the comparison some hoped for. From Mosin's comments (#3 comment in the thread), one doesn't get the feeling Frank and Joel are wrapped up in angst as to how things turned out. And as Dgad points out, whoever owns one but not the other tonearm still has a tonearm which until recently was thought of as top dog or which for many people is now (or still) top dog. Bravo to you for making the effort to allow two top tonearm designers to put on a well-considered and highly anticipated display of analog reproduction prowess. I am sure that many who attended were afforded a taste of the possible and went home dreaming that some of the 'losing' tonearms start showing up on Audiogon at half price. I, for one, would have loved to have been there.
I think as long as people enjoyed themselves and are adult enough to deal with and understand what went on, I think you did no wrong by letting it go on, even if it may not have turned out to be the comparison some hoped for. From Mosin's comments (#3 comment in the thread), one doesn't get the feeling Frank and Joel are wrapped up in angst as to how things turned out. And as Dgad points out, whoever owns one but not the other tonearm still has a tonearm which until recently was thought of as top dog or which for many people is now (or still) top dog. Bravo to you for making the effort to allow two top tonearm designers to put on a well-considered and highly anticipated display of analog reproduction prowess. I am sure that many who attended were afforded a taste of the possible and went home dreaming that some of the 'losing' tonearms start showing up on Audiogon at half price. I, for one, would have loved to have been there.