Tonearms: Ripoff?

@daveyf 
Of course you're right and it's not just the subjective priorities of the listener (aka as 'taste'). We also have to account for the synergy (or not) with the turntable and the rest of the system. Not to mention the system / room interface. No, I'm not suggesting there's an easy way out of your nightmare......

But at least we would no longer have to put up with the bias of reviewers, who are part of the system we want to change. Obviously we would have to accept ownership bias from the people reporting on their experiences. But the more input from different people you gather on the same tonearm/cartridge combinations, the more dependable the outcome might become. A Wikipedia of sorts....

It won't solve everything of course. Think about the Denon DL-103, generally acknowledged as a 'classic'. All those fans can't be wrong, right? So out of curiosity I bought one (a $250 cartridge will allow this) and tried it in all my tonearms as well as a variety of headshells (hadn't mentioned those yet). Whatever I tried, it sounded horrible in every combination. Sometimes you can polish all you want, but a turd is still a turd.....

Dave, whether you know it or not, the price of gold is inversely proportioned to the value of the dollar; as the price of gold goes up, the value of the dollar goes down.

Since the Lyra Etna is manufactured in Japan, there are a number of factors that must be taken into consideration; one of which is the Yen, Dollar exchange.


    https://goldprice.org/gold-price-history.html


   

Edgewear, I'm glad you confirmed what I suspected; you can polish a turd from now on, but when you get through, it's still going to be a turd.

 @orpheus10 

Right now the Yen dollar exchange is pretty favorable to the dollar...what does that have to do with any of my points about acquiring the cartridges in Japan, except for re-enforcing  them that is! 
Do you actually have any clue as to what these cartridges sell for in Japan...if not I would suggest you do a little research before coming back here.

"Or is it that most owners of record players online are dumpster-diving for vintage gear and simply can’t afford to listen to better?"



Madavid, you hit the nail on the head; the identical same goes for the cartridges; since they can’t pay for the ripe grapes, they pretend the green grapes are ripe.