One thing I learned-a good tone arm has to have sufficient mass. You can put the best cart on an arm with insufficient mass and it will sound like an old ceramic cartridge. There are many good designs out there. I installed a Koetsu Urushi Black on a 1974 Pioneer direct drive. After making modifications to the tone arm, it sounded like a $20,000 set up
Comparison of sonic qualities of some tonearms
I’m relatively new to the world of vinyl, listening seriously for probably only 2 years. Of course, many big picture items (e.g. turntable, phono stage, cartridges) are discussed extensively on this forum, but I haven’t seen much discussion comparing different tonearms. I would be interested to hear about different people’s experiences with different tonearms, mentioning the audible advantages and disadvantages of each tonearm, realizing that there is no perfect sound, although from what I read about others’ experiences, SAT tonearms may come closest, albeit at a very high price.