New Schroeder linear tonearm, any thoughts?

...but is it worth it. Would the less than bat eared audiophile be able to hear the difference between the very slight error of today's arms compared to this arm. Can you reading these posts distinguish between a 9 and 10 inch version of the same arm?

Lewm, Herr Schroder spent his earlier days as a trained Watchmaker,(me too) I'm sure he would appreciate your analogy, as do I!!

@Frank - are you ready to retire on regular monthly royalty payments? I know some good IP attorneys. ;-)

Alas even if patented a manufacturer with deeper pockets than the inventor can simply buy one reverse engineer it and come out with their own.

dave

dave,

Reverse engineering of protected intellectual property for commercial purposes is often actionable, though the legal complexities can be daunting. If the action is successful, the court may order injunctive relief (i.e., a "cease and desist" order against the unlicensed user) and/or civil damages.

Samsung was recently found to have violated Apple's IP rights by reverse engineering elements of the i-Phone and implementing them for commercial gain in its own Galaxy phones. Appeals are pending, but at trial Samsung was ordered to pay Apple several billion dollars in damages and enjoined from selling certain models and features.

Of course if the reverse engineering company has much deeper pockets they can exhaust the poor inventor, as you said. Blah, blah, blah...

For the purposes of this discussion, I wasn't thinking primarily about enforcing (or stealing) IP rights. The immediate value of an IP attorney for Frank would be to help negotiate licensing agreements with honest manufacturers.

This assumes Frank would actually be interested. That would be a departure of course. He's an audiophile, artist and craftsman first, a (very good) businessman second.

***

Isochronism,

Speaking of watchmakers, I just bought a house from a man who repairs, rebuilds and sells antique clocks. You'd have loved his basement machine shop... cool stuff.

Hicks Antique Clocks

Dear Iso, It is interesting to learn of your and Schroeder's former occupations. I can add another tonearm inventor to the watchmaker list: Herb Papier, creator of the Triplanar. I was a friend of Herb's in his later years, right up to and beyond the point where he sold the Triplanar business. He built every Triplanar in his basement, on a workbench that resembled what you would see in the shop of a watchmaker. As Herb got older and somewhat disabled, he farmed out some of the mass production (ha-ha) of tonearm parts to various trusted shops, but there were certain things Herb would not entrust to anyone else, including the setting of the bearings.