stanton str 8 80 ?

And I’m just saying please read my post with a more open mind. The tonearm is not “short”; it’s designed to underhang the spindle. All such tonearms can be shorter than any overhung tonearm and do function just fine. The geometry is not “unknown”. Underhung tonearms are a legitimate approach to tonearm design. Those were the very points I was trying to make. I certainly have no idea how the Stanton sounds, but if it sounds bad that’s because of execution, not its design.

Chakster  originally you were critical of the Stanton tonearm because of its short length and lack of headshell offset angle. I am saying that the tonearm fits into a class of underhung tone arms, and that such tonearms have a great deal of merit as compared to overhung tonearms. I did not say anything about quality of construction. Of course quality of construction will have an affect on performance . Also, I am not claiming that underhung is per se a better idea, just that it is worthy of respect. So what is your problem?

 I noticed you couldn’t avoid  touching on your other obsession, with spherical styli. I don’t think the shape of the stylus tip will have any bearing on the difference in performance between a given overhung and a given underhung tonearm. I realize that when the Stanton tonearm which you apparently dislike is combined with a spherical stylus which I also know you dislike, it really adds up. 

Rocky, your tonearm is just fine. Let us know how it sounds.

 Gentlemen, the Stanton tonearm is underhung. Which is to say that the tip of the stylus will be short of the spindle. All or 99% of the conventional tonearms that you are talking about are overhung tonearms. Which is to say the stylus hangs over the spindle, usually by about 15 mm. With an underhung tonearm properly mounted no head shell offset angle is warranted. Yes the cantilever will achieve tangency to the groove at only one point across the surface of the LP. At that single null point, however, there will also be zero skating force. A conventional overhung tonearm is never without a skating force. Yes, at the extremes of its arc which is for example at the inner and outer most grooves there will be more tracking angle error on average then you would get with a properly mounted overhung tonearm. However, consider the fact that it is  impossible to screw up the mounting of an underhung tonearm if you just set it to be tangent to the groove at the approximate midpoint of the LP surface. Whereas, any error in setting up an overhung tonearm could lose all of the benefits that you ascribe to it. Instead of two null points across the surface of the LP you might end up with none. So I contend that Stanton‘s choice of an underhung tonearm is not wrong or stupid or cheap. It is a design choice that has a lot of merit. Read a review of the RS Lab RS-A1 or the Viv Float tonearm some time to get a better idea. These are both great sounding underhung tonearms.