Tonearm hardware shuffle - recomendations sought!

Lots of great tonearms to buy, the 4pt is certainly one of them. You did not specify which Soundsmith cart. This will limit how specific recomends can be as the arm-cart relationship is far more important that the table-arm relation is.

Yes, with poorly engineered arms this is true.

This right here is why I would go with the Conqueror. Mark Baker designs his Origin Live arms properly, so you simply never do have to waste one minute worrying about compliance. I couldn’t begin to tell you compliance for anything I have put on my Origin Live arms. It simply is not a factor.

The Conqueror also uses integral hard wired phono leads. Huge advantage in both cost and performance over designs that require you buy a phono interconnect.

Have a look at -

Kuzma 4Point9 - pivot to spindle 212mm

Also if you want the fantastic VTA tower don't forget the Kuzma Stogi S12 VTA  or Stogi Reference 313 are still great arms at lesser cost than the 4Point11. Both mount at 212mm

I have had the Audiomods - its a great arm that punches above its price point, but I think the Kuzma arms will be a great investment and a step up.

@solypsa thanks for pointing that out. I forgot some vital info

Cartridge: https://www.sound-smith.com/cartridges/fixed-coil/paua-mk-ii

@artemus_5 yes I think I can get great sound at a lower price point of the kuzma. I'm not dead set on it due to its price.

Far be it for me to talk you out of the Kuzma. I looked for a used one at a tempting price for 6-8 months. They come up very seldom and due to their popularity now, they hold their value. I had the OL Illustrious 3 on my Teres as a temporary arm for 12 yrs. Reason was, it sounded good every time I played it. The Illustrious is just below the Conqueror. OL doesn't have all the easy adjustments like VTA on the fly. But they sound better than their price point would indicate.

Lots of great tonearms to buy, the 4pt is certainly one of them. You did not specify which Soundsmith cart. This will limit how specific recomends can be as the arm-cart relationship is far more important that the table-arm relation is.