How to choose an upgraded tonearm.

I’ll PM you to respond about pivot height.

Mijo, I apologize for being pedantic, but you wrote, "Yes, he is increasing the VTA when he does that but that is not what is causing the wow. Thanx for watching the video. I think you agree that it is an excellent primer."

I do agree the video is instructive. Not flawless from a science point of view, but useful nevertheless. But when you increase VTA such that the headshell is no longer parallel to the LP surface, especially by the extent that he does in the video, you do increase warp wow for only that reason, even if the pivot point does lie in the plane of the LP surface.  Think about it.  It's just worse if also the pivot point is high.

Mijostyn,  My only point was that the example shown is not relevant to the proof that the pivot should be level with the plane of the LP. He raises the AR XA tonearm pivot, causing the headshell to tilt up at the rear, in order to get it to move forward when it encounters a warp.  That kind of loads the dice in his favor. It does not describe the most usual case, where the arm/headshell is parallel to the LP surface regardless of where the pivot is located in space.  Since watching the video, I have figured out for myself that the principle is valid; the pivot ideally should lie in the plane of the LP surface.  For a pivot close to but not quite in the plane of the LP surface, the putative increase in warp wow is probably not such a big deal I would say.  I was surprised in the video that I could clearly hear a deviation in frequency from 1000Hz to 1002Hz.  (I could hear 1002Hz almost as obviously as I could hear 1005Hz.) I don't really think I can hear that in real life; perhaps his instrument is damped enough that it doesn't display the actual peak readings for a brief pulse. Or my sense of pitch is better than I think.

Dover nicely summarized your options in the very first response to your question. The subsequent posts delineate your best specific options in alternative tonearms. The choice for a course of action yours.

you could ask yourself what is the penalty in the re-sale value of your Classic, if you have to drill new holes,  and count that as an added cost of the upgrade.

 

"It’s amazing the amount all of you know.."
It’s also amazing the amount all of us don’t know. Like why an outboard pod is not advisable, especially the pods shown in those photos. I don’t argue that it cannot be done well, but the doer must be someone who understands the potential problems. In my opinion, it is not a good idea for your first venture away from standard. If you watched the video provided by Mijostyn, pay special attention to the discussion and views shown of the underside of the AR XA chassis, with the T-shaped heavy metal brace that links the tonearm pivot to the bearing. The narrator discusses the significance of that idea; you don’t want the tonearm and the bearing to be independent of one another structurally or in terms of how external forces affect them.

I did mention earlier that the Triplanar and most if not all Reed tonearms are surface mounted, such that no new hole is needed for a vertical shaft that needs to penetrate the mounting board. You would only have to drill usually 3 small holes for screw fasteners. In some cases, that would work. You'd have to orient the new tonearm so its 3 screw mounts lie on solid material for drilling.

I apologize for raining on the Mijostyn parade, but in this video, where the narrator is trying to demonstrate the importance of having the pivot located at the level of the LP surface (minutes 20-25 or so), he is really comparing the condition "headshell parallel to LP surface" to the condition "headshell raised at the rear".  The question is why is there an advantage to locating the pivot at the level of the LP surface for any given orientation of the headshell when viewed from the side.  Since most of the time we start out adjusting VTA such that the headshell is parallel to the LP surface, I take that as the norm. The video shows that raising the pivot at the rear such that the headshell is likewise raised at its rear will result in increased susceptibility to warp wow.  I have no problem with that, but that was not the question. I wouldn't ignore an otherwise excellent tonearm just because it may fail this one criterion.

Mijostyn, If, instead of insults to my intelligence, you would point out to me what minutes in the video explain the physics behind having the pivot in the plane of the LP, I would watch that part of the video. I don’t need the part about the wonderfulness of the AR XA turntable, and I would rather not spend the better part of 51 minutes waiting for the lecture on pivot location.

I watched.  At ~20:00, one can find the discussion about pivot height relative to the LP surface. 

 

The major argument against mounting the tonearm on an outboard pod is not the fact that pivot to spindle distance is subject to variation, if the pod is inadvertently moved in relation to the spindle, although that certainly is a major secondary consideration.  The major argument against is that the separated pod will likely exhibit differences in resonance properties in relation to the spindle and bearing; this will cause minute relative movements of one vs the other.  You don't want that. You want the tonearm pivot, spindle, and bearing to be together in a closed system.  That said, there are a few outboard pods with sufficient inherent mass that they work OK, if also in contact with a subchassis that is shared with the TT chassis.  There was a ridiculously lengthy thread on this topic, started by Halcro.  Search on the keyword "Copernicus", if you want to revisit it.

Can someone show me the math or physics that says the tonearm pivot must be in the plane of the LP surface?  The idea sounds "right", but I am trying to visualize why.  I start with the principle that certainly the center of mass of the counter-weight should be in the plane of the LP surface, but I'm not sure how we get to the pivot.  There are oodles, probably a vast majority, of tonearms where the pivot is not in the plane of the LP surface.  Many of them are terrific tonearms.

Reed tonearms and the Triplanar are all surface mount designs, so it is possible you could mount one of those without having to drill any new holes, except small ones for screw fasteners. You’d have to analyze on a case by case basis.