Why are modern arms so ugly?

Dear Thuchan,
excuse me, but do you mean that the armboard is floating?
BTW I thought that the most expensive tonearm was the Pluto 9A Prestige gold.

10-11-11: Halcro
OK Johnnyb,
As the Moderator here.....'modern' arms which do not advance the art and science of the design....are not of interest.

And why are you so sure that the DPS arm does not "advance the art and science of the design"?

Dear Geoch,

yes, the armboard is floating but in a very stable way. Four magnets on the rear side of the armboard (two each) are facing four magnets mounted on two special side rests. You may adjust the distance between the magnets for getting a harder or softer "footprint" of the arm.

It is working like in the DaVinci Gabriel II which runs with two big magnetical platters, only moving here.

best @ fun only

Dear Halcro,
in general you are right. But the cobra tonearm is designed for usage with a floating armboard. It is part of the system. But you may use it without, of course.

best @ fun only

Halcro -
My original post was correct then, the major advance is the arm tube. As you have articulated there are many other aspects to this arm, many of which have been used before. If you really want to debate the no headshell then look at the Ediswan Arm of 1955 - this is a monocoque structure with cartridge AND phono built into the arm, even had a volume control on the arm.
Seriously though mounting an armboard on magnets and dialing up the softness sounds like a tone control to me. I'm firmly in the camp of having a rigid closed loop between cartridge and groove. No I dont use the Vector as my own personal preference for tonearms is
1. Tangential tracking air bearing
2. True unipivot
I'm happy to acknowledge the likes of Continuum pushing the envelope and challenging current thinking on arm tube design and performance, but one must also acknowledge the designers gone before who have designed, developed & articulated many of the ideas used in the rest of the arm.