Schroder Tonearms - where do I purchase? are there authorized sellers in US?

@cfarrow my 911 is an 06 C4S manual. What are you driving?

@jymc I also own a Cosmos Eclipse Vacuum! On it is a Schroder CB. Artisan Fidelity is a good choice. Sota has now installed CBs on it's turntables and will make you a tonearm board drilled for the CB. You have to drill two holes and one of them has to be threaded. There is one problem with the CB you should be aware of. It does not have a tonearm rest. Frank does not like anything that can vibrate on his arms. He expects you to leave it on the lift. The problem with this on a SOTA is if someone jiggles the turntable and gets the suspension bouncing the arm goes flying with potentially fatal results. I also do not like working on an arm that is not completely secured. I made myself a locking tonearm rest out of walnut and mounted it to the plinth. You can see it if you go to my virtual system page. If it is not something you are comfortable doing message me. There are very few arms that are better than the CB and of all the arms out there there are only two that interest to me, the Schroder LT and the Reed 5T. Both will not fit on a Cosmos. I also highly recommend a WallySkater to set antiskate on the CB. 

Another thing you should know is that the only CBs that are readily available are the Thrax manufactured carbon fiber version. Only Frank makes the rosewood ones and I have been waiting for mine for almost a year. The one I have now is the Thrax version which is perfectly fine other than not being hand made by the man.

One more issue is the arm does not have a finger lift, but I can not use an arm without one and they are easy to fashion. You can also see one on my Virtual System page.

@jafox 1+ I should note that @jymc needs a tonearm board specifically for his Sota that takes into account the weight of the Schroder arm. Suspended turntables always need the tonearm/tonearm board weight to be within a specific range or the resonance frequency of the suspension might get too high. Sota knows the weight of all these arms and can make matching tonearm boards. A lighter arm will require a heavier board. I wooden arm board will not be heavy enough. Sota also knows the pivot to spindle distances for all these arms and can drill the boards without having the arm.

I'll make @jymc the armrest for the price of the parts and shipping. That would be about $25.00 

@cfarrow I thought about the Taycan, but I really needed a pickup truck, so I got a TRX. I had a 2014 Turbo S, but sold it after 5 years. I liked driving my old C4S better and the Turbo languished in the garage. The 06 C4S has the right look and the rustic personality of the old air cooled cars, aside from being a manual. The newer cars are just too sophisticated for me and I am not fond of PDK transmissions on the street. On the track they make sense because everything is happening much faster. On the street most people leave them in full auto mode, boring. I like feeling like Nuvolari driving an old Autounion. 

@randyk Galibier wanted to charge me $124 for a cartridge mounting plate. I got one from Europe for $50. That was a really bad marketing plan. 

That is correct @jymc. The Origin live arms fit nicely on the Cosmos. The Agile is a nice arm, but I prefer the Schroder. The CB's vertical and horizontal effective mass are almost identical and it's magnetic antiskating is more effective than a weight on a string. The magnets also provide damping so the resonance point is very muted. The OL has a higher horizontal EF due to the massive bearing housing. If you get the vertical resonance right at 8 Hz it will force the horizontal resonance down lower where it might cause problems. The OL has no damping at all. IMHO the OL does not justify it's price although you are probably going to get a good price on it. It is certainly less complicated to live with as it already has a tonearm rest and finger lift. Frank Schroder thinks these items cause resonance problems. You can also get the CB with silver wiring. You choose the CB for the same reasons you chose the Cosmos. It will outperform your friend's Acoustic Signature at a fraction of the cost. The only downside, if you consider it so, is that it is frumpy looking in comparison. I could care less. The only other turntable that interests me is the Dohmann Helix. I am waiting for it to get vacuum clamping. 

@wrm57 That is the kind of marketing that drives me nuts because people have a hard time understanding what they are saying and assume it must be true.

The resonance that concerns us most with tonearms is that between the mass of the arm and the spring of the cartridge's suspension. Damping to minimize that resonance point must effect that suspension directly not by keeping a counterweight from vibrating but keeping the tonearm from vibrating. That is like telling me you got a much better ride by putting a shock absorber on your steering wheel. We do that on motorcycles to prevent "death wobble" or steering slap, not to control the ride.

What Origin live is saying is that their counter weight resonates or vibrates and needs a coating to counteract it. Why not just design a counterweight that does not resonate like Frank Schroder? 

My turntable is a year old, so I just recently went through the ordeal of choosing a tonearm. I can afford any arm on the market if I wanted to, but I also do not like wasting money. I did look at Origin Live arms, but the sweet spot in their line is the Enterprise. The Agile is severely overpriced and does not give you much more than the Enterprise. Be that as it may, The Schroder CB is a better arm. It has first class bearings, magnetic damping, magnetic antiskating and every adjustment needed in a very elegant simple appearing package that ticks off all the important attributes in pivoted tonearm design without adding functions I dislike like VTA towers and tonearm rests that do not lock the arm down securely.  It's only downside is it is plain appearing and is not going to massage anyone's ego. The enterprise is not a bad arm, it is better than most, but the Schroder does it that much better and I got more than my money's worth. Origin Live's customer service reputation does not help either. 

@wrm57 When we talk about tonearm resonance and damping nobody is thinking about a resonating counterweight aside from the fact that thin coatings do not do much.

As for Long Arms, Schroder will not make an arm longer than 11" He feels that is maxed out and I will defer to him on this. It is certainly a lighter arm to begin with and you have the flexibility of using a variety of cartridge mounting plates. I only use 9" arms not that I have much choice as that is as long as my table will take.