What defines a good tonearm

i had the Triplaner VII in my system on 3 different tt's over three years compared directly with the Reed 2A, Schroeder Ref SQ, Reed 2P, and then the Talea 1 and Talea 2. each tt had 2 arm boards and although i used multiple different cartridges mainly i used 2 A90's and the Allnic H3000 with 2 identcal inputs for direct comparisons.

i liked the Triplaner better overall than the Schroeder Ref SQ. simply more energetic and once optimized, more detailed. the Triplaner is an excellent arm, although it took quite a few different tweaks and multiple sessions to get it to sing.

a couple other local friends also used the Triplaner and thought highly of it.

the Reed 2A came along and bettered the Triplaner head to head on a couple of different cartridges. more detail, more space, more solid images, more precision. the Reed 2P even slightly better. then the Talea 1 went further and the Talea 2 even better.

all this time i had the Rockport sitting there as a constant reference. and i had multiple phono stages.

other friends have had the same experience.

which is not to say that the Triplaner is not an excellent tonearm. but; it has been passed by in overall performance by others. not sure how long it's been since the basic Triplaner design has been seriously tweaked, but performance does inevitably move forward.

disclosure; i'm not a dealer for any of these arms.

Dan_ed is right, whether he is a dealer or not.

Dear Mike: The subject with Dan is not if he is correct or not the point is that that is not what we are under discussion.

Anyway, every one can post whatever he want.

regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.

Dear friends: Well seems that there are not precise measures on an unipivot bearing friction level. I wonder from where came that " very low bearing friction ", I think we need this date.

In the mid-time could be interesting that we can think in a unipivot bearing characteristic as " similar " to a tip-toe/cone feet and what it happen around, here we can read about:

http://www.soundstage.com/maxdb/maxdb200207.htm

so seems that this kind of unipivot bearing is a distortion focus in many ways. I know that some of us like some kind of distortions but IMHO I think that lowering distortions or at least not adding more helps to be truer to the recording.

Of course that Lewm is not " buying " nothing but through his experiences he noted a " signature " that I call: distortions.

Yes, it is true that there is no perfect tonearm yet but if we follow analyzing unipivots IMHO this type of bearing design is " surrounded " by higher and more ( different ) distortions that a fix bearing design.

That some of us likes to live with those higher distortions means only that : that likes higher distortions but not that is a better bearing type design and some of us here are talking not on what we like ( as Mike. ) but what is wrong/worst or not through a bearing tonearm type design.

I wonder why some of you can't for a " second " try to be objective or think on objective terms? why can't take-off the subjective " cap " ?.

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.

i liked the Triplaner better overall than the Schroeder Ref SQ. simply more energetic and once optimized, more detailed...the Reed 2A came along and bettered the Triplaner head to head on a couple of different cartridges. more detail, more space, more solid images, more precision.... Dan_ed is right, whether he is a dealer or not.

Yeah, problem today in Audiophile life is, whatever someones likes, is good. Personally I have no problem with that, because I know, most Systems can't show any difference at all, lots of users have no idea from what a top analog System can really do and a lot save some lines from a "review" in the personal memory and repeat that as "knowledge" later. Tonearm Design is pure knowledge (Geometry, Material mix, what is responsible for what and so on). The Triplanar for example is a nice Arm, but not more. It can't work with vibrations coming from the cartridge properly, it has no holographic pressure like other Arms with dynamic classical music. I sold it too after I made my comparisons with other Arms I had. The Schroeder Arm...well, let's say, some believe, that wood on a string is the top of the Audiophile Reproduction, some prefer the MP3 Player instead or a cheap Well Tempered/Hadcock...
Every new Arm gets the attention, that is ok, but the real breakthrough is the time frame, what kind of user tries it with his System and with what kind of records (with Diana Krall for example it is not really easy to rate something). Same with Digital analog masterings (with some very, very few exceptions).
There are endless records out there which can show the differences, but this is depending on the quality of the System of course. Listeners like Mike who put the record onto the table and are curious what that one will tell him, are rare. Most want an Altar and aren't interested in the Time Trip at all. For those there are the "Best Lists".
Unfortunately they aren't the Best. Maybe best for Manufacturer, maybe Best for Dealer, maybe best for ads, maybe best for Profit, but best for Sound????
Let's go the other way, we could buy the really best Arm out there, no doubt about it, but it would cost only 1500$, what do you think, would happen?

the wrong decision...???

Mike and Dan, I assume that both of you have LPs that you recorded yourself and released commercially. What is the title of the LP? I'd like to get a copy.