Hi Bwhite. I am the one that is espousing the opinions about the unipivots not being ideal with the Shelter.
It is not a matter of whether they will work, but how well. I'm sure that there are many unipivot owners out there using low compliance cartridges, and my aim is not to irritate them, but to mention some important points.
First, out of the many unipivots out there, the Graham is probably the most likely to work better with a lower compliance cartridge. It has outrigger stabilizers which will help alot to stabilize the arm with the low compliance cartridges. Since I first made my statements, I have received many emails from unipivot users who claim good results with the Shelter. I don't argue that point. I'm sure they do sound good. I simply make the distinction between sounding good and ideal. There is a difference, and it is audible. If you make an ideal match, then the combination will give you what you are looking for, and not just "nice". A Shelter in just about any arm will sound real good. It's an awesome cartridge. What we are after, is the exceptional sound it is capable of.
For this, we require a gimbal-bearing arm of high quality and great design. It is more important when compliance is lower, to have a very stable platform for the cartridge to work from. Unipivots are inherently unstable, and are not the best choice for a cartridge that feeds alot of energy back into the arm, like a Shelter. For a Benz or Grado or something like that, unipivots are fine. And they have some characteristics that are very desireable, which is why many people choose them. But for this application, I don't think the unipivot is the arm to choose.
So, now we want to examine the gimbal-bearing arms that may be well suited, and there are quite a number of them. I personally have chosen an Origin Live Silver arm at $790. It performs in an outstanding way with the Shelter. It has the medium-high mass needed, and it has great bearings and a very good design all around. Most of the newer SME series will do fine, as will the Linn tonearms, and the Breuer, or Rega upper level, or OL modded Rega arms, also Triplanar. I've certainly left some out, but you get the idea. If you like a linear tracking air-bearing arm, then the ET-2 mentioned above is very nice.
If you want to know what I'd recommend as a first choice, I'd say get the Origin Live Illustrious. I know that the OL arms make a great match with both the Teres TT, and the Shelter cartridges. They provide excellent stability and super detail. They have liquid midrange very much like a unipivot, which provides the musicality that people want when they get a unipivot. But they have the solid bass response which is often lacking in most unipivots. The lateral mass is increased for superior cartridge performance, and have light enough vertical mass for good warp tracking. The resonance behavior is superior, and is very high rigidity. It is generally more musical than the SME, which has more analytical nature. It is less colored than the Linn arms. It has better resonance characteristics than the Rega arms. It has a better lateral mass component than nearly any other arm. For a lower compliance cartridge like the Shelter, the OL arms would be my first choice for top performance in all aspects. It is a distinct possibility that the Illustrious may be the finest pivot arm made at this time. I have the lowest level OL arm( but I did some special TWL mods), and it kicks serious butt with my Shelter on my Teres 245.
Of course, all IMHO.
