Looking for a great arm that is low maintenence


I ordered a Sota Cosmos turntable and am going to get a ZYX Airy 3 cartridge. I am looking for a great arm that is not high maintenence or finiky. I don't want to have to adjust it with each playing, or to add oil every time I use it.

The arms I'm interested in right now are the TriPlaner, Graham 2.2, or the SME IV, but I'm open to suggestions. The new arm with replace a Rega RB 900.

Give me your what and why...
128x128nrchy
Nrchy,

The arms you're considering are all low "maintenance". Once set up there's little to do. The Graham 2.2 does require damping fluid and getting it right is critical. But once you've got it things should remain stable, at least until you change cartridges. The TriPlanar and some SME IV's have a damping trough, but unlike the Graham you don't have to use it. We haven't found it helpful on our TriPlanar. I cleaned the oil out months ago and the trough just sits there empty.

Whether you adjust arm height (or anything else) for each record has little to do with your tonearm. It has much to do with your cartridge, your ears and your listening preferences.

Cartridges with micro-ridge or line contact styli (including ZYX) are more sensitive to SRA than cartridges with elliptical styli, which in turn are more sensitive than cartridges with conical styli. If you truly want to set-and-forget then choose a Grado or a Denon 103. You won't need to adjust very much because they won't respond to the adjustments anyway. Of course you won't hear all the music either. That's the tradeoff.

Getting the very best sound from vinyl does require working at it. Anyone who says otherwise has a limited system or limited ears. If you're happy with and relaxed about a notch or two less than top performance that's perfectly fine of course. You can save yourself a lot of work, and a lot of money too.
Doug and others, other than the recommendation for the SME because Sota uses it a lot, do any of you think one of these arms will be appreciably better than the others with my Cosmos and ZYX Airy 3 combination?
As I said, the Wheaton is the best arm I've every owned. It is mounted on a TNT-6 Hotrod. Of all the arms you've mentioned, I feel the SME would provide the most synergistic match with the Sota.
Nrchy, I had both the SME and the Graham on my SOTA for several months--they use the same SOTA board!--so I had time to compare them with a variety of cartridges, though not the ZYX.

My experience was that both arms work extremely well with the SOTA but the Graham was slightly superior to the SME in most respects: better sound (bass), better adjustments (VTA on the fly) and greater ease of use.

I sold the SME and kept the Graham.
Thanks for the album recommendation Sirspeedy.

Like yourself, I have all the orignal Mercury and RCA stereo recordings.

Steve