Okay, here's where the rubber hits the road. The arm cannot be chosen properly, without due consideration as to what types of cartridges you plan to use. They work together as a package.
In my humble opinion, the absolute best cartridge that can be gotten for under $500 is the Denon DL103R. Happily, it is only $230. However, it has the distinction of being the stiffest compliance cartridge in the world, and is not happy at all in a unipivot arm. Yes, I know, some people use it in a unipivot, but I assure you it is not working at its best there. It requires a good quality medium to higher mass gimbal-bearing type tonearm. It tracks at about 2.75 grams, and has a compliance of 5 cu, which is very low(stiff). Also, other very good cartridges that have the type of sound I prefer, also are under 10cu, and require a similar arm type. So this is why I chose a quality gimbal-bearing arm. If you want to use some higher compliance cartridges, you can use a unipivot with good result. The best higher compliance cartridge under $500, I think, is the Dynavector 10x4. Around $350. Or for a moving magnet type, a Goldring 1042. Those would both work well in a unipivot arm or gimbal-bearing type arm.
Personally I see no purpose in limiting my cartridge selection by choosing an arm that does not lend itself to certain types of very good sounding cartridges. Others disagree with me on this, but I hold firm to my opinion, because it stems from some pretty good level of experience on this subject.
There are some very good sounding gimbal-bearing arms out there that don't take a back seat to any unipivot, and are not restricted in cartridge matching, to the point that unipivots are.
I think that the Graham Robin is a good arm, but it is not a Graham 2.2. And for the same money as the Robin, you can get an arm that will very closely compete with a 2.2. That arm is the OL Silver. It will handily outperform the Robin, at the same $800 price point, and it will handle a DL103R quite well, so you can use that very good sounding cartridge that doesn't cost alot.
The combo of OL Silver and Denon DL103R will cost just a hair over $1k all together. To use a Robin or JMW or other quality unipivot, you would have to use a much more expensive cartridge to get similar cartridge performance. The closest sounding cartridge to the DL103R, that could be used in a unipivot, would be a Benz Glider at $700. And even though the package would be well matched, it really would't compete sonically with the OL Silver/DL103R package because the OL Silver is too much better than these low to mid priced unipivots.
If you can find an arm/cart combination for $1k that will beat the OL Silver/DL103R combination, then you need to be the one answering these questions, not me. Because if there is one, I sure as hell don't know about it.
Then when you get ready to move up in cartridges, you can step up to the Shelter 501, which is another super value at the $800 price point. It is also low compliance, and I feel it is the best cartridge made under $1500, and sounds better than some cartridges costing up to $5k. It also needs a gimbal-bearing arm to work at optimum. So there you have another reason for buying a gimbal-bearing arm like the OL Silver. When you move up to a Shelter, you have an arm that can make the most of it also. To get a cartridge that would match the sonics of a Shelter 501, that could work well in a mid-priced unipivot, you would have to spend about double or triple what the 501 costs.
All in my humble opinion, of course.
