Unipivot tone arms

I had a Keith Monks Audio Lab (KMAL) and a JH Formula 4 arm from Australia. Both unipivots. Now I have a Mayware from England - the original that JH copied. They all sound excellent!

Some unipivot tonearms (VPI for example) are poorly designed because they are inherently unstable, thus the tracking force is in a constant state of fluctuation as the tonearm traverses the record. I suspect this is why VPI has been moving toward gimbal bearing arms in recent years.

Graham Engineering knows how to make a proper unipivot.

I have a VPI unipivot arm and it tracks beautifully with my Soundsmith cartridge. I have tracking force adjustment and alignment as well. 

I’ve had a Moerch UP-4 on my Scheu Premiere MKII for 20+ yrs.

Used with a couple Ortofons and Lyras…setup is currently in my A/V system (not main) but works and sounds great.

Have also heard and operated (not my own) VPI unis with ZYX and Lyras.  Work and sound just fine.

Most modern (meaning brought to market within the last 10-20 years) unipivots are not really unipivots in the original sense of the term, because most manufacturers have modified their unipivot designs to reduce or eliminate their capacity to rotate in the plane of the pivot, which makes the azimuth unstable. These modified Unipivots are also made less prone to "chatter" at the bearing point, by use of magnets, etc. As a result, the better modern unipivot tonearms, like the Kuzma 4-point or the Graham or a VPI with their add-on modification, are really excellent tonearms, but expensive.