best value current production tonearm

Trans-Fi is all over it. It's much simpler to set-up than a pivot arm if you can adjudge a right angle.

Bdp24,

Your description sounds a lot like the Michell Techno Tonearm

Techno Arm

Had one of these some years back and it was a great sounding arm. However best value in a current build is most defiantly the Jelco offerings.

Jelco Tonearm

Good Listening

Peter

The Jelco 750 Series are indeed a huge bang for the buck-I own a 750D.

Replacing the stock Jelco mounting base should be mandatory, however, for anyone running any kind of more exotic stylus profile like line contacts or microridge. The stock base just has too much slop in it which allows the arm to tilt over and wreaks havoc with proper azimuth adjustment.

Both TTWeights in North America and Ammonite Acoustics in the UK manufacture an aftermarket base which eliminates this problem. For around $100 the Ammonite base is a no brainer in my experience.

Pricing on the TTWeights base is not as clear to me-it looks like you can purchase a base unit separately or that unit with VTA on the fly. Not really sure but I would expect it to offer a similar advantage to the Ammonite base which I can attest to working very well.

Oh, and for 799 pounds you get on-the-fly SRA/VTA adjustment via a built-in precision micrometer!

Super easy set up on the TransFI. I helped someone set one up on a refurbed Technics SP10 MKII with one of those crazy nice wooden plinths.

It took less than an hour. Much less time then mounting a new cartridge on a "normal" tonearm.

I love VPI Classic, but I've seriously considered buying the TransFi Savlation, it's just so freaking simple, and that arm is fantastic.