Tone arm length

From 1970 to almost 1980 including all of my college years, I worked in hifi retail stores first in Seattle and after graduation in San Diego.  The stores I worked at were primarily McIntosh dealers and at that time a great deal of emphasis was placed on clinics including turntable and cartridge setup.  Every dealer was required to have a very expensive bifocal microscope (Wild-HerrBrugg) specified by McIntosh that was actually capable of seeing if the stylus was mounted squarely on the cantilever; seeing if the stylus was wearing evenly over time and so forth.  Customers were encouraged to bring their TTs in for periodic inspection.  Some of us who took an interest were trained and became proficient at TT setup and evaluation.  I still own two of those microscopes.  Over time I became convinced that all things considered the 9" tonearm was the better option.  This is not always true, but it is so more often than not.

My wife and I enjoy Victoria very much and try to visit there every chance we can.  Perhaps our favorite city.  I will try to visit Sound Hounds next trip.  I am quite sure you will enjoy your new set up.

I almost forgot about the microscope.  We are summering at our home in New Hampshire.  The microscopes are both at our winter home in Florida.  If you are really interested send me a private note and when we get back in late September or thereabouts I'll send you photos and we'll take it from there.

Probably many of us have experimented with Baerwald vs. Lofgren vs. Stevenson until we were so frustrated we wanted to take up a less challenging hobby...like chess. :-)  I suspect most of us concluded eventually that the difference between Baerwald and Lofgren was so difficult to detect that it becomes a coin toss for most practical purposes as to which to choose.  For new comers, unless you are very certain that you will only be listening to certain types of classical music (i.e. loud passages occurring near the inner grooves) , Stevenson is not as versatile and will result in greater tracking distortion over a broader arc of play for every record every day.  FWIW, I find Stevenson can be annoying particularly on piano, classical or otherwise.  As to the many excellent points made in this quite erudite discussion I find merit in the majority.  Yes it is true that a 12" arm that is properly set up will have less tracking error and distortion than a 9" arm.  Yes a 10" offers a useful compromise between the two.  My best current VPI HW-40 has a 10" arm.  Yes a 9" arm has lower mass all else equal and offers many advantages due to lower inertia.  What needs to be said is that all of these differences are subtle and any of these sizes works splendidly if set up correctly and if the user cares for the equipment properly.  In the end set up and care are at least as important as which equipment you choose.  One of my TTs is 40 years old this year (VPI HW-19) and the 9" SME Tonearm underwent a rebuild by SME Canada last year and the whole set up works and sounds very good indeed.