Agree with Syntax that the primary function of this arm's price is to attract attention... which we are providing. ;-)
Disagree on the viability of wood as an armwand material, and windy hyperbole will not blow it out of the room.
Energy transfer is not the only way to stop stray mechanical noise from reaching (or reflecting back to) the cartridge. Energy absorption can also be effective, particularly at higher frequencies. The chaotic, cellular structure of wood, especially dense hardwood, provides millions of boundary transitions that scatter and randomize HF energies, preventing the buildup of resonance patterns. These energies are also attenuated as molecular level vibrations are converted to heat. In this application, wood can be a usefully lossy medium.
The Durand armwands have a lower sound floor than any metal armwand I've heard, especially in the musical harmonics region. I believe their wood armwands contribute to this.
As usual, there's more than one way to skin an audio cat... it's all in the implementation.
