"S" shaped tonearm ?

Better geometry so that the tracking angle is improved over more of the record, I think.

Johnnyb, I couldn't have said it better.

I always thought that S shaped arms started disappearing around the time MCs became the rage and that it was discovered that you needed a more rigid arm tube for MCs than with light and compliant MM or moving iron designs, so that extra material to make it stiffer and extra material to keep the S shape just wouldn’t do.

I remember the SME model that was S shaped with a titanium wand and I think it was no slouch teamed with a compatible cart.

I like the way you seem to think that everything made now is better than everything made then. I guess one does fall into that trap when one is a monger.

Feil sent me an email indicating that he mentioned present day arms he does not sell. I'll buy that, but not his argument that is based on the notion that if it is current practice it has, by definition, to be better than anything that was built before.

I don't want to leave the imnpression that Feil is shady in any way, although he does seem to push what is current and, to me at least, this seems to go against the current that I see favouring old and quite old analog equipment (Lenco, Thorens rebuilds come to mind).