Linn

Of course most famous for their LP-12 Table, They offered a few arms as part of the "Linn playback system". They ranged from the Basik (the philosophy being that the deck was more important than the arm or cartridge) to the Ittok, and a few other weird names in between. I have an LVX, which is a newer version of the Basik, have had a couple of Ittoks,  As popular as the LP12 was and is, many companies have tried to embellish it. Naim, with their Aro, Syrinx with their PU-2 (description to follow),to name a couple.

Premier MMT

Sumiko In the '80s made this arm as a reasonably priced offering to make high end tables more affordable. They actually are still the best value in a vintage arm today. They will work with almost any cartridge, offer optional damping ( almost nobody does this), a  heavier add on weight for lower compliance cartridges, and have a standard detachable head shell for popping in different cartridges.I have two of these, and would buy two more. They also made a model called the FT-3, which was an upgrade. A fixed head shell and therefore lower mass, slightly better cables.

Grace

Kind of a Japanese Shure with a lot more diversity in their offerings, one of the oldest companies in Japan. They probably have offered a couple of dozen variations over the years, I have owned the 707 (probably their most famous) and the 747 (same arm in black with a detachable head shell). Low mass, best suited to high compliance cartridges.I also have a couple of their F9 cartridges, which arguably (to me) are among the finest of the vintage MM cartridges out there.Ironically, the F9 is too low a compliance for these arms!

SME

As close to a household word as a high end tonearm can get, British company SME has certainly been successful for a number of years.Originally distributed by Shure in the US, now part of Sumiko. Both older and newer arms are desirable among collectors, I have a 3009, 3009 series II, and two series III. All double knife edge (see introduction below), they became progressively lower mass as time went on. As of the series IV (pictured top), they went to conventional bearings. The most recent that I owned was a 309, similar in many ways, and was a price breakthrough at $1600. Sold this way to cheap for $700., oh well. If any used arms have resale value, these do.We are too soon old and too late shmart......

Tonearms

Ahh! I know I have you on the edge of your seat now!

  Turntables are mostly physics,and the tonearm of course transmits the electrical energy of the cartridge to the   output wiring/cables/jacks what have you. Many numerous schools of thought, and many factors involved- Mass? weight? friction? bearing type? suspensions? wiring? length?

  I will limit my discussions to arms I either have owned, still own, or have used.

  Bearing types- The most common would be

 Gimbal- either single or dual. These are the most rigid types- generally rings with bearings around the pivot point.

 Double knife edge- hardened steel knife-like blades that sit in a "V", much less friction, but known to "chatter" with really low compliance cartridges.

  Unipivot- the least friction of any, but relies on gravity to hold it in place. Probably the most fussy, and most difficult to set up.

  Air bearing- generally linear tracking, a pump is required to keep the geometry in place. I do not own any of these.

  Filament, or wire- a few esoteric types use this method,  have not owned any of these either.I do own a French table with a leaf spring suspension, there have been a few departures from the norm.


  Mass- A combination of weight and size.

  Low mass- works best with high compliance and light weight cartridges, generally not moving coils.

   Medium mass- a good bet for the majority of today's cartridges.

  High mass- best for low compliance or heavy low output moving coils.


   Compliance, by the way, is a measure of the cartridge's ability to respond to subtle undulations in the record groove. Higher is not always better, sometimes overkill.

  Length- most arms are about 9", many might argue the "transcription length" of 12" or more minimizes tracking error.

  Wiring, of course, is a given. Like any other part of your system, the better the wire used, the better the result. 99.9% pure copper, pure silver, gold, Litz, schmitz, the results are often different, but as a rule, the better the wire, the better.

  The following,then- is a tonearm extravaganza!

The weather is hot

A little too hot for tube amps, but I still listen.

    In the mean time, this is one of the coolest other blogs I have found!


   No idea where this guy finds this stuff..............

http://itishifi.blogspot.com/