How to choose an upgraded tonearm.

@skyscraper , I think that is exactly what rauliruegas had in mind. 

@skyscraper  A proper tonearm has to be neutral balance and have all the necessary adjustments for VTA, VTF, Azimuth, Antiskate and overhang. It has to hold the cartridge tightly and only allow it two degrees of freedom. The Vertical bearing should be at the level of the record and it's bearings should be of the highest quality. The tonearms that meet these requirement are the Reed 2G, the Schroder CB, the Tri Planar, the Kuzma 4 Points and a few of the Origin Live arms. I'm sure I am missing a few but the video above shows you what to look for. Stick with 9 or 10 inch arms. Going longer hampers performance in bad ways. Your Kleos will perform at it's best in any of the above arms. I have the Schroder and love it. The only qualm I have with it is that I wish it were supplied with at least one other counterbalance weight. The one supplied will not cover lighter cartridges like the Soundsmith. Your Kleos will be fine with the one that comes with the arm. I think the 4 point 9 is the best value in a high performance arm out there. The Reed and Tri Planar arms are also top performers but more expensive. 

One thing is for sure. You are going to love your Kleos! - Mike

Mike, a tonearm has to deal with specific issues and to do so has to be designed correctly. I suggest you watch this as it is a great primer on tonearm design

adjustments

@yeti42 , unfortunately, the heavy plate took the tonearm mass up too high for the cartridges I currently have. Schroder does have optional weights but since I have a lath and brass rod is easy to order I made several weights of various sizes. The only clue that they are not from Schroder is that the color of the brass I used is a shade darker. Going to the lighter weight lower's the arms mass and limits inertia improving the arm's tracking. I put a really warped record on which defeated the vacuum clamping and the Schroder danced beautifully, many arms would have gone airborne. 

My own opinion on unipivot arms is a lot more dismal than yeti42's. Unless you are talking about either the Basis or Graham arms I strongly advise against Unipivot arms. Both of these arms are overpriced and the Basis is really a bipivot arm. The Graham is a magnetically stabilized unipivot. IMHO the arms I mentioned perform just as well or better and are much more realistically priced.

The Lyra Lambda cartridges are designed so that their coils are in perfect alignment at the recommended tracking force and anti skating. Which intuitively would seem to be of obvious benefit but, a well designed magnetic system will provide a very uniform field strength across the gap between the poles. The only cartridge alignment would be critical would be the VDH cartridges that do away with the front pole piece. While there might be a benefit with the shorter cantilever this allows I personally do not care for the design but I have not listened to one so I should keep my mouth shut, a trait I am obviously not proficient at.  

@skyscraper , for what it is worth, Jonathan Carr has made comments in his marketing that would indicate that he does not like his cartridges in unipivot arms. You have to look at the tonearm and cartridge as one unit. They have to work together to do the job correctly. Any of these arms will seriously outperform what you are using now and will work great with Lyra cartridges. Will you hear the difference? There is no way I can know that. It depends on your sensitivity  and your situation, system, setup, room, etc. I can tell you with my system and my ears there is no contest. 

@mulveling , you can bolt any tonearm to any table assuming there is enough real estate. It might take some machining and cleverness but it can be done. My favorite way is to re-machine the tonearm area to accept a removable tonearm board. If you pick the right arm you may actually improve resale value. 

The Rega RB3000 tonearm mounted on the RP 10 is available as a separate item at a very reasonable price. It is not neutral balance and has it's vertical bearings are above record height. With a perfectly flat record none of this is a problem. Unfortunately there is no such thing. Even with vacuum clamping there are undulations in the record's surface that the tonearm has to negotiate without causing the cantilever to deflect. Such deflections cause wavering of the sound as the relative speed of the vinyl changes. This happens to some degree even if the tonearm tracks the record perfectly but a poorly designed arm makes this worse. It is built in wow and flutter. The reason vacuum clamping turntables with great arms sound better is better speed consistency, less wavering. This is more important then wow and flutter specs is todays better turntables. 

@lewm , just watch this and it will explain it ....too most people.

Lew, you have to watch all the way through. I know you are going to find it boring after the first 30 seconds. I think even you will understand it. I have posted this on numerous occasions right in front of your face, this time you might try watching it. The vertical bearing problem is a matter of simple geometry. Since I am no good at explaining simple things, watch the video. This fellow is really quite good. 

@skyscraper , Those rings are a PITA to use and dangerous. They also do not totally flatten a record and add a lot of stress/mass to you bearing.

Once you post a link screwy things start happening and you can't post further or make correction.(your bearing).

@skyscraper , to continue I think reflex clamps like the ones JA Mitchel and Sota make are your best bet after vacuum clamping. They are less of a hassle to use and are near as dangerous. Do they improve what you hear? If you record is not flat then absolutely. The brief alterations in pitch that occur are probably worse than the worst wow any modern turntable would reproduce.

"If the record is not flat."  I am sitting here at my desk with my turntable directly to the right with my eye right at stylus level. A 180 gm copy of Take Five is playing as I type. It is sucked down tight to a very flat mat and platter. The cartridge is just slightly gyrating all over the place. Back and forth horizontally due to eccentricity of the spindle hole and up and down due to irregularities in the surface of the record. This record is actually pretty good. All these issues in tonearm design matter. There is no real excuse to ignore any of them. I suppose sometimes you have to compromise. 

@lewm , that would be incorrect. It is all about the location of the vertical pivot. The tonearm describes an arc as it travels up and down. Think of it as drawing a circle with the stylus. What happens to the location of the stylus when you move the center of the circle up. The stylus now moves forward as it travel upwards. This transiently slows the speed of the groove by the stylus creating wow. The higher you go the more wow is created. If you lower the center of the circle the opposite happens. Groove speed increases as the tonearm moves up. The least amount of stylus translocation is created when the center of the circle is at record level creating the smallest amount of wow with changes in elevation. This was demonstrated in the video. Although this video uses the AR XA as it's model and shows how advanced it was in it's day. It also explains a number of concepts that are important to any tonearm and turntable. The only severe error it makes is with it's deflection of anti skating. The XA actually did have anti skating. It's horizontal bearing had to be the worst design of any tonearm ever made. Friction did the job. I do not really care for his description of the head shell either. It is a must watch for people like @skyscraper. My point in all this is that people become so concerned about the wow and flutter specs of turntables and not about other issues that cause significantly greater speed irregularities like tonearm design and warped records. 

Lew, I was not insulting your intelligence. I was joking with you to try and get you to watch the video. It obviously did not work. Next time I'll try another approach. 

@skyscraper , You can mount any tonearm of the right length on any turntable if you are clever enough. That may or may not involve significant modification to the table. It is has a removeable tonearm board you are all set. Just get a new one and have at it. If not you will have to evaluate each arm and it's mounting method in the context of the real estate you have available. I do not know your table well enough to be able to comment. Like some other people on this site I would NEVER use a tonearm on an outboard platform. 

@lewm , 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.

@skyscraper , Having looked at pictures of your table, you have a tonearm board screwed to the upper surface of the plinth. Using the same screw holes you can mount any 9 or 10" arm on any size tonearm board as long as the arms are surface mount. But in thinking about it @rauliruegas advice is probably the best. You might think about selling what you have as a unit and getting a new table/arm combination like a Rega RP 10 or a Sota Sapphire with a Rega RB 3000 arm. 

@lewm, lets see if we can sort this out.

In all cases when you increase VTA by lifting the back of the head shell you have to be raising the pivot unless you bend the tonearm just behind the head shell to increase VTA that way. Do that in your head. So now you have a very high VTA and a bent tonearm with it's pivot point at record level. Now run it around 360 degrees and draw a circle. It is the same circle with a very slightly shorter radius. The translocation of the stylus is exactly the same as when the arm was straight. WOW does not change until you move the center of the circle. 

Yes, there are a few errors in the video the worst being the discussion on anti skating. But, it is highly instructional and his methods are fairly easy for people to grasp like the difference between stable and neutral balance.