Tonearm adjustments on the fly

Thanks for your response on Durand, Mike. I recall reading the Durand website back when their only product was the Talea. This was right around the time that I heard the Talea for the first time. I was particularly taken by Joel’s background in both music and engineering, in part because one of our sons is a UW alum. I guess one can admire a developer with an open mind that stays open; once he decided on a particular wood, he apparently did not close his mind to other possibly better ideas. Back then there were some who disparaged wood per se because of the potential for warping. I didn’t and still don’t agree that warping is an insurmountable problem, if the maker knows what they re doing, and I have liked the Talea, the Reed tonearms, and Schroeder tonearms very much, all with wood arm wands.  And a tonearm is not going to be in an environment that is unstable as to temperature and humidity, which might tend to encourage warping.

Dear Chakster, I would not disagree for a moment that the Reed 3P is more beautiful than the Triplanar.  What's more, you can order one in different wood and metal finishes to suit your taste, like a car.  In my opinion, the Reed toneams are sonically competitive as well.  My only point was to challenge the notion that the Reed 3Ps azimuth adjuster was "the best".  It's very good, I'm sure, and does the job adequately.  Comparing my Reed 2A to my own Triplanar, built by Herb Papier nearly 30 years ago, I would have to say that the quality of the adjuster on the TP, taken as a tool only, is a bit higher than the one on the 2A.  The TP adjuster has a better "feel" and allows for finer movements up and down.  Tri, the current maker of the TP, has improved the adjuster on current manufacture TPs even above mine.  By comparison, the 2A is a bit coarse feeling. The 3P may be a different animal for all I know.
Mike L, Do you know what prompted Durand to switch from wood arm wands, the use of wood for which were at the heart of the company philosophy once upon a time, to other materials?  I have heard the Talea, Talea2, and the Telos on a neighbor's system.  My too brief listening impressions suggested to me that the Telos was not much of a sonic upgrade on the Talea 2.  In fact, I might have preferred the latter.  The Talea 2 with a UNIverse cartridge was memorable.  (Same turntable, phono, amps, and speakers in both cases.)  Of course, the cartridge mating is key.

How can you know that the Reed device is the "best of them"?   I own both a Reed 2A and a Triplanar.  The Reed is indeed a great tonearm, but the adjuster on the TP allows for finer tuning, not that I think fine tuning is so important.  I fully realize that later models of the Reed, e.g., the 3P, may have a more precision adjuster, compared to my 2A.  Later models of the TP (mine is already 25 years old) offer even finer adjusting than mine.  Anyway, the Reed adjuster is a straight up copy of the TP adjuster, not that there is anything wrong with that. There are a few other competitors we are not taking into account, like the Kuzma 4-point.  We can't know which is "best"; they are all probably good enough for the purpose.  I'd be more concerned about the rigidity of the locking mechanism, once proper VTA has been selected.  I apologize if this sounds combative; I do not mean it to be taken that way.  I am taking the "Joe Friday" point of view... "Just the facts, ma'am".

Triplanar was the first to feature a precision veniered VTA adjuster, but before that there were several Japanese-made tonearms that offered less precise adjustment usually by turning a knob at the top of the vertical shaft (Victor UA7045 and 7082, for examples) or by rotating an adjuster lower down on the vertical pivot (Technics tonearms and FR64 and 66 tonearms with the B60 accessory, now available with Ikeda tonearms). Reed and some others copied the Triplanar design. Azimuth on the Triplanar is adjustable by a threaded screw in the horizontal plane that rotates the arm wand and locks it in place. It is not ideal to adjust azimuth by rotating the wand, because doing so simultaneously alters zenith, due to the effect of the headshell offset angle, but it works.