Wood armwand vs Metal armwand

Very good points Atmasphere! I live in Wisconsin and deal with the same weather related problems/obstacles with my cello as you would with a wooden tone arm.

There are techniques to make wood stable. Such as immersing it in a stablizing product, and applying a vacuum to draw the water out and the stablizer in. This replaces the water in the wood with a resin that will not be effected by humidity. Certain woods are much more stable than others as well.

Though I don't live in a very dry climate, the humidity indoors does get pretty low in the winter. I have had no issues with my Reed tonearms.

Single crystal sapphire tonearm.

Wouldn't predictability, consistency and repeatability across a manufacturing process and across the wide gamut of environments it is to be used in make metal a better material?

I suppose one could infuse the wood structure with epoxy to attain this, but then we aren't really talking about wood anymore, rather some plastic composite material.

I'm not arguing that wood is not better, I just don't see how one can predict it's performance given its inherent variability. If you do choose to infuse it with epoxy, why not skip the wood and go with carbon fiber instead?

^^ this.