Why are modern arms so ugly?

Thuchan&Hifihva, Japan was a 'closed society', to use the
opposite of Poppers 'Open society'. Only the Dutch have had
the admission to enter. 'Rangaku' was long time their name for science while this exppression actually means the study of the Dutch language. This fact imply that aducated
Japanese were able to read and speak (?) Dutch which is of course very similar to German. So the German 'orientation' for at least 'technical study' is easy to understand. I also assume that the German technical faculties were much better than the Dutch at those times. But I don't know when exactly this 'reorientation' took place. However I am somehow sure that Daniel knows the answer.
Thuchan I refuse to 'enter' the 'nature-nurture' riddle.

Regards,

Dear Hifihvn, yes, but german attention ( obsession ..? ) in attention to detail and precision was apparently more readily adapted by the japanese students in their prewar traveling of the western hemisphere ....;-) ...

Dear Nikola, Thuchan is much more qualified here.
Him having lived in Nippon for a while and being able to talk in japanese. My knowledge here is purely 2nd hand and based on historic studies only.
Cheers,
D.

Dear Halcro , agree about the Telos.
Joel Durand apparently went into a slightly different direction now compared to his Talea-design.
Beautiful ..... well not really.
In terms of optics, I am rather unimpressed.
But I am sue we will see huge and enthusiastic acclaim following RMAF 2011.
Cheers,
D.

A fundamental issue that occurs with every arm I have seen that gets good marks for appearance the the design of the bearings.

More to the point the bearings are positioned outside of the plane of the LP surface, resulting in variable tracking forces, depending on warp and bass modulation.

If the bearing is is the same plane, the tracking force is constant with the presence of such events. The result is that such an arm will have better bass than an arm that lacks such a design. This is something that as an engineering concept has been known for a very long time. It is why a truck can climb a hill fairly well even though it has rear-wheel drive- when going uphill, there is more weight on the rear axles. Ask any airline pilot about how weight has to be distributed in an aircraft and you will discern the same fact.

So- can this criteria be met while the arm still has an aesthetic appeal?

Dear Atmasphere, yes, it can still has an aesthetic appeal and yes, you are right - the plane of the record needs to be meet by the bearing. The criteria will be meet .... pretty soon.
Cheers,
D.