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How important is the tonearm?

I am presently shopping for a new tonearm for my new turntable. I looked at basic arm like the Jelco (500$) but also at arms like Reed, Graham, Tri-Planar all costing over 4000$.

The turntable is a TTWeights Gem Ultra and the cartridge I have on hand is a brand new Benz Ruby 3.

Here is a couple of questions for the analogue experts.

1. Is the quality of the tonearm important?

2. Is it easy to hear the difference between expensive tonearm (Ex: Graham Phantom) vs a cheaper Jelco (Approx. 500$)?

3. What makes a good arm?

Any comments from analogues expert?
acadie

Showing 1 response by amandarae

amandarae
512 posts
 
I am with Stanwal!
It is my firm belief that the arm matters more than the cartridge

But I disagree with the other poster's statement of
The tonearm's mass should be low as possible to avoid unnecessary wear on the grooves.

I will bet all I have that a cartridge with low compliance will not sound as good when installed to low mass tonearm compared to a high mass tonearm. Why? Because it is designed with highmass tonearm in mind. So not all tonearm should have low mass. It depends on the application/cart being use. Besides, VTF dictates the force that the groove "feels" from the stylus not the tonearm mass.

If I am the one shopping for tonearms, I will buy the best that I can afford and be done with it.
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