TW-Acustic Raven 10.5 or DaVinci Grandezza??

I just want to clarify that the arms comes with the table and DaVinci is actually $1000 more. The reason is that the TW table and 10.5 arm will be brand new where the DaVinci is two years old.

Greetings, Kdl. I have it under good authority that a crazy Texan traded a Da Vinci Grandezza tonearm in on a new top-class vinyl machine from Bavaria. I believe that someone will be getting a great Grandezza at a wonderful entry acquisition price, maybe even you!

Luna, As we babble on, you've probably got the idea, as I have, that no one can really tell you which of these two tonearms will please you the most. Obviously they are both high quality items, so you have little to lose either way.

My take is different than yours Dertonarm. I find the "tonality" of wood makes up for the ZYX Universe slight tendency to a leaner but more detailed sound. You might be right about the unipivots but wood for me was the major factor. I sold my ZYX as it was a little off of neutral and honestly now I do miss it. Goes to show what we like best might not be the best.

To sum up audiophiles beware, this is a biased and opinionated hobby. You need to take into account that at many an audio show people disagree about what room sounds good. How can we truly get accurate or meaningful advise from a forum unless we qualify the person giving the advise.

Thanks to everyone who has inputed to this thread. Especially to you, Dgad! After our long discussion with Dgad, I have also asked the opinion from my dealer who does TW and Davinci. His analysis is similar to Dgad’s that the Davinci has better valve and can be of a higher level, but... may be restricted by the Raven One and my novice’s set up ability. The TW arm is easier to play around for better results in my system. I will save up for a better cartridge like the XV1. As to upgrade to a higher level TT like Raven AC would be out of my reach for a long while. Dgad’s suggestion of synergy between arm/cartridge combinations is most valuable and I will keep that as reference. By my own, I would have gone for the DaVinci with no hesitation for its valve and its look! Following his sincerely detailed and unbiased advice, I think I had a pretty good idea now.