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Why are modern arms so ugly?

OK.......you're going to say it's subjective and you really looove the look of modern tonearms?
But the great tonearms of the Golden Age are genuinely beautiful in the way that most Ferraris are generally agreed to be beautiful.
Look at the Fidelity Research FR-64s and FR-66s? Look at the SAEC 308 series and the SAEC 407/23? Look at the Micro Seiki MA-505? Even the still audacious Dynavector DV-505/507?
But as an architect who's lifetime has revolved around aesthetics.......I am genuinely offended by the design of most modern arms. And don't give me the old chestnut....'Form follows Function' as a rational for ugliness. These current 'monsters' will never become 'Classics' no matter how many 'rave reviews' they might temporarily assemble.
128x128halcro
macdadtexas
1,794 posts
 
I'm with you, ugly. Old "S" shaped arms did look pretty cool.
salectric
747 posts
 
I agree with a lot of your examples. I have a Triplanar and it is pretty ugly, I'll admit. However, I have a Schick 12" and it looks beautiful to my eye. I also liked the appearance of the Moerch DP-6 with 12" wand that I had a while back.
restock
831 posts
 
I don't know, but I would prefer the looks of the Triplanar to the DaVinci Grandezza - gold and wood reminds me too much of 1970s stationwagons...
cwlondon
1,210 posts
 

I am bracing myself for the inevitable chorus from the who cares what it looks like crowd.

Safe to assume there are no architects among them.
nandric's avatar
nandric
4,086 posts
 
Dear Halcro, You and Dertonarm are our 'fire -eaters' or
'war -horses'. Never heard about fear? I mentioned somewhere that among the most contra-productive rules the oldest was 'de gustibus... non disputandum est'. However
even Mozart needed to learn first about music before he was
able to give his compositions to the humanity. This apply to any artist we admire. But if you look at our educational systems you will see that even 'phylosophical esthetics' is missing. What can one learn about esthetics with the help of TV? So no wonder that only few really care about while many like to talk about...
You may be privileged by your profession in this matters
the most of us have no better than state that we 'like' or admire something but are not able to describe what we exactly mean. The lack of vocabulary suggest the lack of learning.
BTW I stated ealier that I admire FR-64 S the most of all tonearms. But because of my lack of the right vocabulary I had no better description than 'mechanical beauty'. I was very glad to hear from T_bone that he understod what I wanted to say.
Regards,
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