Tonearms: Ripoff?
sfischer1"There is no rational basis for extraordinarily expensive anything." There most certainly is and in actual fact and practice there are many very expensive items that can objectively, factually and rationally be justified that you do not see this suggests that you are confounded, confused or disoriented. |
I clicked on this thread because I have a Sumiko MMT made by Jelco on my Oracle Alexandria and have been dreaming of an upgrade that will work within the specs imposed by my turntable. I was hoping for some informed, experience- based options. I hadn't noticed that the OP may not be. Why couldn't we all just have taken the high road and had that discussion? Without name calling? Just share data? Thank you to those of you who did take the topic seriously. I am disappointed to say that so far, my conclusions have not changed; that is it will take a lot of money to get to a significantly better performance point and with my limited ability to hear very subtle differences; I'd probably end up with buyer's remorse. If anyone has any good suggestions I'd be happy to hear them. That's my problem: I can't leave well enough alone. ;^) |
clearthink, As an example, and as a recovered watch addict, people don’t justify expensive watches based on their time-keeping accuracy (rational), and the differences between different high-quality products can be described as minor. While the features of luxury products can be objective, they may not be practical or necessary, and it often comes down to the subjective outside of what is needed beyond food, clothing, and shelter stability. I can identify all sorts of objective improvements in performance and quality of my Bergmann turntable, but to my wife and most people, they aren’t rational. I have it, and those improvements matter because I want it. |
@2channel8, My experience is that a Basis Vector 3 substantially outperformed a Rega 600 tonearm. I have owned a MMT in the past, and it was about on par with a Rega. Maybe one of the greatest improvements I made to my system. Everything was better especially the imaging and image stability/specificity. I would not hesitate to upgrade my tonearm if I were you. Basis makes a great 9 inch tonearm. If you can find one used it can be a real bargain. |
sfischer1"as a recovered watch addict, people don’t justify expensive watches based on their time-keeping accuracy" Addiction to anything is a very sad thing and by definition those who are addicted to any thing at all are not rational in any way they are destroying they're lives and acting out of some painful unmet physical or emotional need but that does not prove "There is no rational basis for extraordinarily expensive anything." |
