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How important is the tonearm?

I am presently shopping for a new tonearm for my new turntable. I looked at basic arm like the Jelco (500$) but also at arms like Reed, Graham, Tri-Planar all costing over 4000$.

The turntable is a TTWeights Gem Ultra and the cartridge I have on hand is a brand new Benz Ruby 3.

Here is a couple of questions for the analogue experts.

1. Is the quality of the tonearm important?

2. Is it easy to hear the difference between expensive tonearm (Ex: Graham Phantom) vs a cheaper Jelco (Approx. 500$)?

3. What makes a good arm?

Any comments from analogues expert?
acadie
dan_ed
2,451 posts
 
Very nice! You'll have a very hard time taking many of those well known 'table makers seriously from here on out.
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,793 posts
 
One nice thing about the Triplanar is you can set up the effective mass of the arm/cartridge system to match a range of cartridge compliances. Beyond the abilities to set the usual adjustments, this feature reduces the need to be picky about the cartridge. I have found that surprisingly inexpensive cartridges, if set up right in this arm, will track with the best of LOMC and sound nearly the same too, **once properly loaded**.

So my take is the arm **can** be a lot more important than the cartridge- so long as the effective mass issues can be satisfied by the combination.
rockitman's avatar
rockitman
417 posts
 
02-05-11: Mj908
it's all gimmick. For below $500 each, you can find a table, a tonearm and a cart and enjoy music, [b]spending more than that is just for your ego[/b]

LOL, you must be speaking of your system. News flash: All systems are not alike. I agree, you can have a nice sounding analog rig for the money you mention. To sugggest that other's who may pay $10K or more for the table & arm, plus $5k on a cart are doing it to stroke their ego is ludicrous and indicates to me that you really don't have a clue. Thanks for the laugh though. :-)
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