Why the sudden popularity of 12 inch arms

I have a Walker Proscenium Black Diamond with linear tracking tonearm and a Technics SP-10 with SME 312S ((Magnesium) conventional pivot tone arm.

I absolutely love both of these arms! So I defend the guys at Hi Fi+ for their enthusiasm about 12 inch arms.

The linear track arm is always perfect, zero error. The difference between arms is more than tracking. I also owned the Air Tangent 10B and it was terrible. It's execution was excellent, appeared to be as high quality as the Walker, but wouldn't beat a 9" Graham. The Walker KILLS it !

Execution is paramount, not to mention the care of set up. The design is critical, but execution can over ride a (potentially) superior technology.

I did not read what Valin wrote, but if he likes the TW Acustik more than the Walker, that will be good for TW's sales.

As for your comment that the Walker arm kills the Phantom, I don't know if that is true and probably no way to test. The Walker arm only works on a Walker turntable and the Walker table will not accommodate a Phantom :^).

Or is Valin due to give back or sell his permanent loan and he is looking for another :-)

Unknown, I am not close to Valin. It's not by choice, I just don't know him well enough to have "inside" knowledge.

When I spoke to the owner of TW Acustik at the show, he had several tonearms mounted, including a Phantom, a Tri-Planar and something else (I don't remember). I ask what he liked best and he said "The Phantom, with Air Tight PC-1"

I certainly agree with him on the Air Tight PC-1, I have two of them now and no Koetsu. If you know how crazy I was about Koetsu you know how big a change that was. I also gave the PC-1 product of the year award at PFO where I review.

I did not get these as "samples" or reviewer freebees :^). I bought them at a reduced price, but no better than clever audiophiles and dealers get.

Downunder,

I was quoting you re the walker kills the Phantom. Or did u mean the air tangent??

Sorry I did not make myself clear, I was referring to Walker beating the Air Tanget as I had them at the same time. I also had the Versa Dynamics and the older Graham 2.2 mounted on a Basis Debut Gold MK 5.

What does the air tight bring to the sonic table that beats your Koetsu Jade's??

The Air Tight is faster, much lower distortion, higher resolution and detail, tracks better and images better.

Another benefit in my system is the output voltage. Koetsu Platinum is .2, Air Tight is .6. My phono (Aesthetix) is all tube, so this higher voltage (by default :^), lowers the noise floor, giving the first stage input tubes a lot more signal to work with.

With all these "Sirs," being bantered about, I feel like I'm in season one of Law and Order and listening to Michael Moriarty trying to face down a criminal.

Anyone else ever get that feeling?

Hey, that's as good a response as any other, "Sir."

Don't let that keep you from watching "Law and Order" they use that term to great effect.

Now if you had been referring to him as "Speedy" I would have known where you were coming from. No confusion between Sirspeedy and (say) Speedy Alka- Seltzer (or, see link below).

Speedy, not Alka-Seltzer

Is it OK for me to say I love my SME 312S ? I know, boring compared to emergency brakes. However, at this stage I have nothing else to "pedal."

I'm going to bow out and give you guys an emergency brake.

After lunch break for you