Tonearms: Ripoff?

@madavid0I wasn't sure what angle you were coming from so I recommended the lower end of the high end, an area I have a lot of experience in. ;-)
The thing is this though, if you have experience of upgrades and the improvements wrought from them, then you'd get what improvements better gear brings, albeit, on occasion, at a higher cost compared to the perceived gains. In other words, better tracking which allows finer detail to emerge from the mix, and less congestion in busy musical passages. The greater the accuracy of the bearings, the more music retrieved. Add in improved build quality and the beauty of the craftsmanship, improved accuracy of VTA adjustments etc. all bring more to the listener. Of course, one has to be able to discern these improvements, and this may influence where you seek the best bang for your outlay.

Dear @madavid0: What needs a good cartridge from the tonearm?:

-  pretty decent bearing ( it does not needs the " hardest " one. ) design.
- very well damped
- first rate (silver ) internal wiring with very best  ( silver ) female cartridge connectors.
- accurate and user friendly cartridge/tonearm protractor.
- precise VTA/SRA/VTF, scating and AZ mechanisms
- non-unipivot design.

More or less those are the main targets a cartridge is looking for. Normally good tonearms  even almost all those targets and the differences in between can comes form te: executuon quality of the design, build materials used as magnesium, titatinium, wood, etc, etc,  arm wand shape as J or S type, type of damp used, build material used at the bearings: stell, tungsten, ceramic, etc, etc., effective length and effective mass.

In reality there are many individual characteristics that makes the differences but not necessarily for the price.

Could happens that a specific cartridge can performs better in a Jelco than in a SAT or Triplanar one and this not really tell you that the Jelco is better but only that the cartridge is a better match with the Jelco.

Obviously that as anything in audio reproduction is room/system dependent and dependent too on each one of us MUSIC/Audio priorities.

Never exist and " easy " way to explain the kind of questions you posted because so many parameters involved .

R.

Sadly tonearms mean almost nothing to me. Being a bottom of the turntable hierarchy nearly forever means I buy only arms that come ON THE TABLE. Sad really. Beyond those arms is a whole Universe of fancy engineering I ... could care less about.
Cart arm matching is another mystery that I have luckily also never bothered about. I stick MY cart on the arm with some eyeballing and a wild guess.
So far I am happy. (Should I be?) LOL
PS I currently have a Rega P5 with a Benz Glider on it. and a Kuzma Stabi Stogi S with a Dynavector 17D3 on it.

Fascinating...

Now DavidO is insinuating that he/she actually does have money and that he/she is an audiophile.

Not buying it, and I'm rich, famous and extremely sexy.

DeKay

Fascinating...

Now DavidO is insinuating that he/she actually does have money and that he/she is an audiophile.

Not buying it, and I'm rich, famous and extremely sexy.

DeKay

        LOL.....
…….I sure hope you typed that shirtless...….

        Your just tooooo sexy for that shirt,  so sexy
         it hurts...…