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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 9 responses by orpheus10

orpheus10
8,668 posts
 

How does one know which tonearm goes with which table?

This looks like a good combination: Kuzma reference and Wheaton Triplaner; plus koetsu cartridge.


    https://www.tnt-audio.com/sorgenti/kuzma_stabi_e.html


    https://www.triplanar.com/


    https://www.stereophile.com/tonearms/the_tri-planar_tonearm/index.html


    https://www.upscaleaudio.com/collections/koetsu


Or maybe Lyra?



    https://www.signals.uk.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Lyra-price-list-1.pdf


    http://lyraanalog.com/



Can anyone give any recommendations on this most exclusive shopping list?
orpheus10
8,668 posts
 

The market is what it is; if you want a trip to musical paradise, you got to pay the price.


A studious audiophile has paid part of the price with the knowledge he's obtained over the years that enables him to get the most for his money, but at the end of the day, high end sound ain't cheap.
orpheus10
8,668 posts
 

"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?"



Madavid, you hit the nail on the head; the identical same goes for the cartridges; since they can’t pay for the ripe grapes, they pretend the green grapes are ripe.
orpheus10
8,668 posts
 

Edgewear, I'm glad you confirmed what I suspected; you can polish a turd from now on, but when you get through, it's still going to be a turd.
orpheus10
8,668 posts
 

Dave, whether you know it or not, the price of gold is inversely proportioned to the value of the dollar; as the price of gold goes up, the value of the dollar goes down.

Since the Lyra Etna is manufactured in Japan, there are a number of factors that must be taken into consideration; one of which is the Yen, Dollar exchange.


    https://goldprice.org/gold-price-history.html


   
orpheus10
8,668 posts
 

When it comes to economics, audiophiles are the dumbest of people, they don't have a clue as to what the price of corn and gasoline have to do with cartridges and everything else; It's called INFLATION.
orpheus10
8,668 posts
 

The "haves" are not ruining this hobby, they are helping to fund it. Just think about it; if you had a reputation for a good product, and you could build a slighter better product and charge an obscene price for it, that was way over your acceptable profit margin; "Why not".

Conrad Johnson is my favorite preamp, and here are some prices. When inflation is taken into consideration, they're probably not too high.



    http://www.thestereoshop.com/conradJohnson.php
orpheus10
8,668 posts
 

When funds allow, I'll get the RB 2000 tonearm, which is listed at $2,195.


          https://www.needledoctor.com/Rega-RB2000-Tonearm


          http://www.rega.co.uk/rb2000.html


The reason I'll get this tonearm is because it comes with the Rega RP10 which is my next TT.


If I wanted to play with something, I would have gone into electric model trains; I want to hear beautiful music reproduced in my listening room as good as possible. The pinnacle of success in my book is to feel as though you are at a concert when you are in your listening room, and I will take all shortcuts available to get there.
orpheus10
8,668 posts
 

All the reviews like Rega tonearms, they also like Rega TT's; so if you want to listen to music, as opposed to playing with audio toys, that are very easy to mess up, why not use the arm that comes with the table; for example, Basis likes Vector; they must be a match.

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