I am not asking for what is the "best" tonearm, as that is a much too subjective question, as the responses in any thread you look at on this forum would reveal. I simply believe that there are certain goals that all tonearm designers are trying to achieve, and since they are using different means to achieve those goals, they are likely to have different degrees of success. And certain of those common goals might be more difficult to achieve with certain design choices than others.
Any designer knows that when they chose a certain design theory, they are accepting that they have to deal with the inherent weaknesses in that theory and their ultimate success depends on how well they deal with those inherent weaknesses.
My original question was intended to be limited to pivoted arms, not parallel tracking arms as those design limitations are generally much different than pivoted designs, as Acoustat6 points out. I have an ET2 that I can use if I want to go that route.
Again, my original post was asking if there was some inherent benefit to a fixed pivot design that makes it worth the perceived extra effort required to design and construct them. It seems most of the more recent high end tonearms are unipivots or some variation thereof.
Audiofeil,
If the Titan generates a lot of energy, would it not be a good candidate for something like the Townshend Rock silicone trough headshell damping system? My use of that trough with other cartridges seems to result in a much cleaner, smoother sound than without.
