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Tonearms: Ripoff?

If you search for tonearm recommendations you'll find an overwhelming amount of praise for $1k and less products. Audiomods and Jelco are the two most mentioned.

The Audiomods is just some guy making Rega-based tonearms in a workshop. Just some guy is putting out tonearms that compete with tonearms that cost many times the price -- from the likes of SME, Clearaudio, VPI, Graham, etc.

So the question is -- are tonearms just a scam? How is it that everyone loves Audiomods and Jelco to death and never talks about / dismisses high end tonearms? Is it because there's no real difference between one of these low-cost tonearms and the high end ones? Is an Audiomods Series V ** really ** the equivalent of a SME V? Some guy in a workshop equals the famed precision of SME? Is that once you have the math and materials worked out all tonearms are essentially the same? 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?

So, what's going on?
madavid0

Showing 6 responses by bdp24

bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,400 posts
 
The Audiomods arms were never "Rega-based", unless you consider using that company's good 1-piece tube makes an arm Rega-based. Every other part of the arm is non-Rega, and in the new Audiomods model even the tube is made by designer/machinist/owner Jeff, out of carbon fiber.
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,400 posts
 
A good condition Zeta arm can be had for under a grand. Send it to Johnnie Nilsen at Audio Origami in Glasgow (a Zeta expert) for a rewiring (copper or silver) and checkout (bearings, etc.). A classic!
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,400 posts
 

I sure wish more of the people recording music and manufacturing physical media had the high standards observed by high end audio designers, manufactures, and audiophiles. To play the junk that is most recorded music on a high end pickup arm (and any other expensive component) is hard to justify. I long ago learned that the better the system, the worse most recorded music sounds.

Still, it beats the alternative. In some ways, even sonically-mediocre material benefits MUSICALLY from superior equipment, even if not sonically. The price-to-performance ratio evaluation is a personal one, not something that can be answered for you by anyone else. But then, the OP wasn't really looking for an answer to his question, was he? Or even a discussion of the topic. His post was more like a statement, with a question mark tacked onto it's end.

bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,400 posts
 
I too read that the Rock’s headshell-end damping reduces sonic differences between arms, but that is an over-statement. Arm tube stiffness, bearing quality, geometric design, dynamic behavior, and other factors remain, and produce resulting audible differences. In a way, the Rock’s lack of resonances actually increases the audible differences between arms. It just makes arms marginal because of their own resonances acceptable.
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,400 posts
 
@cdavids449---Excellent! The Helius Omega is great on the Rock, I've heard that combo in the room of the U.S. distributor of both at a couple of hi-fi shows in S. California. It's beautiful looking too, curvy like a voluptuous woman's figure. Did you get the standard Omega, or the Silver/Ruby?
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,400 posts
 

In the case of the Audiomods arms, the designer/master machinist (he’s not "just some guy making Rega-based tonearms in a workshop". For one thing, his arms are NOT "Rega-based", they are entirely his own design and hand-made manufacture, and quite unlike the Regas. Yes, he buys the arm tube he uses from Rega, but that, and that alone, is the sole commonality between his and their arms) sells directly to the consumer. If he had a dealer network, the price of his arms would automatically be double what they are.

The Jelco’s are made in massive quantities, which allows for economy of scale. The more you make of anything, the less each costs.

And then there is the matter of diminishing returns. After a "certain" level of performance is reached (in all products), further improvements cost more per increment than below that level. Experienced audiophiles are searching for the "sweet spot" in the price/performance ratio continuum. Flush audiophiles are willing and able to pay for increasingly small and expensive improvements; good for them! The rest of us have to find products that reside in our own personally-chosen "sweet spot".

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