What defines a good tonearm


I'm in the market for a very good tonearm as an upgrade from an SME 345 (309). Most of the tonearms I have used in the past are fixed bearing except for my Grace 704 unipivot. I dont have a problem with the "wobble" of a unipivot, and they seem the simplest to build, so if they are generally at least as good as a fixed pivot, why wouldnt everyone use a unipivot and put their efforts into developing easier vta, azimuth and vtf adjustments, and better arm materials. Or is there some inherent benefit to fixed pivot that makes them worth the extra effort to design and manufacture
manitunc
Interesting. You are the first person who has made such comments that I know of, but I do understand loyalty.
I came to the tentative conclusion that in part I was responding to highly euphonic "imperfections" that I have heard before with unipivots in my own system.
A strange conclusion Lew especially when transposed alongside "the ethereal quality of the Talia" which you heard?
Sounds like you are buying Raul's claim that anything which sounds good must be attributed to 'distortions'?
You Guys kill me..Fighting over flawed(pivoted) tonearms is beyond me...

Where is all the NEW Thinking?! lets see some real R&D and invest some money in some real tonearm engineering...I have seen enough of the pretty wood arms...

Any pivoted arm new or old is flawed from the get go besides being only tangent on 2 points of a record other parts = (distortions)......the mechanical bias on any of these arms are not totally linear/calibrated across the entire record so you have torsions/distortions etc... if that is what you like so be it..

I guess I will just stick with my graphite composite Linear motor...tangent arm.....
Dear Halcro. Sooner or latter you will " discover " ( no ) better yet you will discern about " good sound " with distortions ( as the one you are hearing. ) and good sound with out distortions.
You need practice tobe aware and discern about but this needs not only a method/process to do it but a " new way " of thinking on the audio subject: new excellence level targets. I hope sooner or latter you will be there, good lucl on that regards.

regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.
Seems to me that it is no better example of the Red Herring fallacies, that Atmasphere linked, than Dan_ed.

WSe are talking here on tonearm bearing not if the Talea performs better than a triplanar or not.

Well, we can't be surprised coming from a Talea dealer.

regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.