Tonearm: Well Tempered Lab LTD MK2

Raymonda, It's a pivoted tonearm, right? If it has no bearing, then what does it pivot on? The answer is, it does have a bearing. That "paddle or ball in silicon fluid" constitutes a bearing, for better or worse. Don't be concerned; I am not confused on this issue. You have every right to love it; I don't.

No bearings in the normal application of bearings....they are zero tolerance, too.....so how are they vague? I'm not sure I understand or follow what you are describing.

First, do you concede that there can be no "pivot" without a bearing? If so, then you agree that the construct that permits pivoting is a bearing. I am not sure I understand the meaning of the term "zero tolerance". If it means that every tonearm made is exactly alike with no unit to unit variation, then that's admirable, if it's possible. But the other meaning of that term that comes to my mind is that the bearing has zero space between the two surfaces that must also permit free movement between the two surfaces for the bearing to have acceptably low friction. Hard to visualize that one. In most bearings, the petroleum-based lubricant fills the space between two moving parts. In the case of the WT tonearm, it seems the silicon fluid serves that purpose.

Anyway, none of this matters. You obviously are very happy with your WT tonearm, and that's fine with me. You have a lot of company on your side. My experience with WT tonearms is limited to a WT Reference tonearm mounted on a WT Reference TT that belonged to a dear friend of mine who suffered from dementia prior to his death a few months ago. While he was still able to appreciate music, I helped him on two occasions to mount a cartridge on his WT tonearm. It seemed to me that there was some modest amount of slop in the bearing and that it was over damped. (I would even soften up my statement that it was "vague", in favor of over-damped.) For sure I could see with my own eyes that azimuth was not stable, as the arm tracked from the outside grooves to the inner grooves of an LP. The Reference TT per se is fine, IMO. It is only the tonearm that gave me fits. Moreover, I thought that the sound of the TT was very tipped toward the midrange prominent and always "polite", regardless of the source LP. I attributed this coloration to the excessive damping. All this is IMO, of course.

Thanks for clarifying what you meant by vague. You can vary
the amount of fluid in the cup and it has a pronounced effect
on the sound. Also, as you are aware, all other adjustment
you complain about can be fine tuned, you just need to let
the arm settle a bit after you adjust it. Anyway....I don't
own a well tempered arm at present but have in the past and
would do so in the future. I've always wanted a reference.

I guess we can end by agreeing to disagree.

You say potato I say patato.....let's call the whole thing
off! ;?)

Can we get back to the topic: WTL Tonearm + ZYX
10g effective mass vs. 12/15x10-6 (100Hz) compliance