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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 lewm

lewm
13,476 posts
 
Dear Davide, You wrote:
"As to importance, the tonearm is secondary to the turntable. A spring suspension turntable like Linn or Sota with an entry level tonearm will reveal much more than if you buy a better arm but compromise on a non spring suspension turntable."

I and many others, like Dan_ed, would strongly disagree with this wild generalization, to the effect that suspended turntables are better inherently than unsuspended ones. Can you amplify on this thought?
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