Why the sudden popularity of 12 inch arms


VPI was the only mainstream manufacturer for years, now we have 12 inch arms from
Kuzma, Schroder, SME, Consonance, Brinkman to name a few.

Why is this?? fad or long term

Would a 12ich Grahham, Triplaner or Basis be a better sounding product??
downunder
Raul, whilst we all appreciate the experiences and comparisons that you bring to this forum, I think that Zieman has a point.
Your claim that the old technology of arms is as good as, if not better than the new, is demonstrably false just as your beliefs that the older cartridges (both MM and MC)are legitimately comparable to the newer LOMCs.
In my experience, the greatest advances in analogue playback have occurred in just the last 10 years with arms, cartridges and turntables!
Your most 'modern' turntable appears to be the Acoustic Solid from Germany. I have heard their Mambo and I'm sorry to tell you that this is not comparable to the Raven AC, Continuum Caliburn or Criterion nor the Walker Procsenium or Rockport Sirius.
The arm I have discovered since mounting the Continuum Copperhead, is just as important as the table and the differences can be quite stunning.
Once again all your arms cannot bear comparison to the Copperhead, Cobra, Phantom, Triplanar et al.
For you to claim that you have heard all these tables and arms and believe your tables and arms are just as good, means ALL of us can happily make those SAME claims about all OUR equipment as well.
It doesn't unfortunately, make it so.
To compound the problems I have with you, all your arms appear to have readily interchangeable headshells which presumably have plug-in electrical contacts?
For decades, most reviewers and arm-designers have eschewed removable headshells because of the sonic degradation involved and extra electrical contact points.
The sum total of your 'less than SOTA' turntables with your dubious arms with removeable headshells, seems to me to indicate that the sound you are able to extract from the vinyl is decidedly second rate.
The differences you will still hear between cartridges, but the validity of your opinion is severely compromised by the real lack of nuance and detail that you are missing.
Now it is absolutely fine for you to be happy with your set-up and system.....but when you progress to making absolute decrees on the universal quality of arms and cartridges to readers who have little experience,it can be dangerous and misleading.
Raul, sorry my poetic license for the use of "crappy"

However You quoted " I change six long tonearms for the short ones because I can't find a real/true quality sound improvement in the long ones"

Therefore you must have the same tonearm's in 12 and 9 inch and as you have indicated the 12 inch versions offer no sound improvements over the 9 inch version.

Please tell us what six 12 inch arms in your opinion offer no performance upgrade to their 9 inch versions.

I am certainly interested and I am sure a lot of other people are too, so we don't potentially waste our money upgrading to the 12 inch versions :-)

cheers Shane
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.
Dear Shane: Ikeda, Fidelity Research, Moerch, Audiocraft, Micro seiki and SAEC. With the right ( matched ) cartridge all these tonearms ( long/short ) are really good!!!

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.
I CAN agree with Halcro,in that IMO the last few years has brought a "major" improvement in vinyl reproduction!!!
One just has to look at the better(quite a few)cartridges,and with a good table(there are many),and tonearm(quite a few "decent" choices,too)the serious vinyl hobbyist/collector can have a field-day at his/her local used record store!!!
Too much fun for one lifetime!!!