What is the best tonearm at about 3000 budget?

Here's a few to consider...SME V or IV.Vi, Grahm or VPI JMW. Depends on your table, cartridge and tastes. I use the SME on a SME table...

The SME sounds like wet cloth, the Graham sounds cold, and VPI sounds like mashed potatoe, compared to Breuer.

The AirTangent arm is one of the best ever made. They can be found sometimes in the $3000 range used. Cartridge compatibility is a major issue with any tonearm, and I would recommend choosing a combination of arm/cart as a system instead of a great arm and great cart separately, and hoping they will work great together. Also, there are some lower price arms that will compete well with the big buck items. For a gimballed arm, the Origin Live Silver 250 or Silver Taper are great contenders for top honors at lower prices. For a unipivot, the RS Labs RS-1 has gotten great praise. These arms offer the performance of the best for a lower price and represent great value. Unless you are going for status, you would be well advised to audition these arms as well as the expensive ones.

As good as most arms in the $3000 or less category, according to all who've heard it, and far less expensive. Why not invest the $2000+ in other equipment?

Andrew