What makes a good tonearm?

Ozfly, There are so many good AND bad tonearms, and tonearm designs. It will all come down to which compromises you are willing to contend with. Every tonearm design available ie: linear tracking, gimballed, unipivot, or laser have issues.

I'm providing you with a link to very good primer on essential design parameters and considerations from the theoretical aspect. It is basic, but provides the fundamentals of established design criteria and execution.

Details and complications such as fixed effective length affecting overhang, linear offset, and feeble attempts to attaining null radii, (in essence, trying to defeat the laws of physics and geometry), constantly fluctuating centers of gravity and azimuth alignments in unipivot designs, ultimately inducing resonances (which somehow need to be dampened), and having to tolerate the eccentricities of linear designed arms who's systems begin to become so complex, that these complexities begin to introduce an almost insurmountable amount of variables to the equation.

Anyway, try this for a starter:

http://www.tnt-audio.com/sorgenti/armdesign_e.html


Hope you enjoy, Ed.

Here is another paper worth reading:

http://web.archive.org/web/20020803152937/www.cris.com/~tnv2001/WHITPAPR.HTML

Great articles! Now I know enough to be dangerous! Thank you for the great reads. My objective is to get a relatively maintenance free arm and these article pointed out some ways to do that. The Audiomeca parallel tracker was also interesting. Thanks.

If you take a close look at the Technics' 1200 tonearm you'll see the features of an outstanding tonearm. Full gimbal w/ extremely low friction bearings (published spec), s-shaped and bent at two unequal distances to avoid resonance, damped counterweight. It's a great design--a litlle heavy, being a cheaper version of the titanium EPA tonearm. THe tonearm is overall non resonant and neutral. Right, TWL?