best value current production tonearm

The Trans-fi arm looks intriguing if you are a masochistic tinkerer who can't help tinkering all the time - like me. My first 'Big Boy' turntable was a vacuum-platter SOTA with an ET2 arm. It drove me nuts for several years until I traded the SOTA in on a new TNT that I bought with a rock-solid TNT stand. The TNT/ET2 combo was made in Heaven for many years. I got so I could level the arm by turning the knobs over the TNT feet and never needed a level.

I have nice VPI table now with a very nice arm - the JMW 10.5i. It goes for months without needing any adjustment - except for on-the-fly VTA, but I really miss the stunning improvements an air bearing arm brings to the game and would like to look into the feasibility of mating it to my existing SSM, particularly in the Z axis (height re. the platter top). Their web-site is a fright. I can't find any American distributors. I would also like to know the air pressure specs so that I can put something together in the good ol' USA instead of paying a fortune to ship theirs.

Any help finding out more about this arm would be appreciated.

Thanks for the info about the arm customization. I can measure the depth pretty closely with an old dial calipers. don't know the machining dimensions under the arm board as I bought the table used with the JMW 10.5i base securely mounted. It's a factory stock VPI Super Scoutmaster plinth mounted with the 4" square board.

I am starting to yearn for this arm to play with to replace the 10.5i, but the system sounds so good these days that I hate to screw it up. I think the SSM Rerefence (belt-drive) could be an ideal platform for a floating arm. I loved my ET2 for 15 years despite the fact that both tables during that time - a SOTA and original TNT - were suspended on springs. Because the machining quality of the ET bearing was so high, the friction along the manifold was near zero and the carriage had such high mass, it was almost impossible to stay perfectly level along its path. This brought out the OC part of me that relentlessly fixes everything I know isn't right about my system. I think 15 years' experience with an ET2 in the worst of platforms qualifies me to put this little guy in place of the VPI arm. I need to assure myself that the swap won't prevent me from going back to the JMW if that's where the results lead.

Bpoletti, I would never again run an air bearing arm on a suspended table. If I had to use a TNT, I would get rid of the 4-corner suspension and install some different footers in their place. There are a lot of good candidates on the used market.

The arm would be around $1200 - 1350,including insured UK mail
depending on options. For about fifty bucks more you can get a digital VTA scale. There seems to be a cult of tweakers gathering around this arm and its fans really seem rocked in their enthusiasm for it. I have too many other irons in the fire right now after huge system relocation, new speakers, tubes, cables, rack. I am waiting for a new UberBuss and will soon start screwing around with room tuning and speaker placement. A new tonearm install on top of all that will drive me nuts.

It's a back-burner project for me until I get a handle on all the changes I made already. Maybe next year. But I will probably obsess over it until then. It looks like the manufacturer has been responsive to his customers for years and is continuously evolving the design using their input. They seem to try very hard to make updated technology available as cheaply as possible for their existing customers instead of herding them to buy new models.