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Tonearms: Ripoff?

If you search for tonearm recommendations you'll find an overwhelming amount of praise for $1k and less products. Audiomods and Jelco are the two most mentioned.

The Audiomods is just some guy making Rega-based tonearms in a workshop. Just some guy is putting out tonearms that compete with tonearms that cost many times the price -- from the likes of SME, Clearaudio, VPI, Graham, etc.

So the question is -- are tonearms just a scam? How is it that everyone loves Audiomods and Jelco to death and never talks about / dismisses high end tonearms? Is it because there's no real difference between one of these low-cost tonearms and the high end ones? Is an Audiomods Series V ** really ** the equivalent of a SME V? Some guy in a workshop equals the famed precision of SME? Is that once you have the math and materials worked out all tonearms are essentially the same? Or is it that most owners of record players online are dumpster-diving for vintage gear and simply can't afford to listen to better?

So, what's going on?
madavid0

Showing 7 responses by lewm

lewm
12,543 posts
 
I think there is a linear relationship between the cost of any tonearm and performance.  A $5500-tonearm will invariably outperform a $5000 tonearm.
lewm
12,543 posts
 
The joke's on me.  I posted on the wrong thread, in my comment on buying cartridges in Japan.  Davey, however, found me. This tonearm thread is just as annoying.
lewm
12,543 posts
 
That’s mail order.
lewm
12,543 posts
 
Boys, I travel to Tokyo frequently and when there I haunt audio salons in my spare time. You will never see a Lyra cartridge overtly for sale in Tokyo. Likewise for Koetsu, maybe excepting their lowest cost models. If you ask a salesperson about Koetsu or Lyra, they don’t know what you’re talking about. Likewise also for Clearaudio and several others aimed at the foreign market, i.e., outside japan. Other good  brands can be found but there’s little price advantage especially considering the lack of a US warranty, like Audio Technica. That still leaves a few relative bargains, e.g., Shelter and Ikeda and a few brands we don’t see here in the US.
lewm
12,543 posts
 
 Davey, now that you have admitted that you generally agreed with the review opinions of HP, I think I understand you a bit better. While HP was probably the greatest of audio Review writers, his opinions were diametrically opposed to my own  in most cases where I was able to audition equipment he espoused. He seemed to prefer the shrill and the clinical over the musical. And he definitely tended to prefer the very expensive over the less expensive. So I am a bit surprised that you followed him so closely on that score alone. For one example, he may have been largely responsible for the popularity of the original Supex cartridges, which were the first moving coil cartridges to be widely marketed in the USA. To put it frankly, they were just awful.
lewm
12,543 posts
 
Wrote, not “Road”.
lewm
12,543 posts
 
Folkfreak, if what you say is true about the cost of the 12 inch SAT tonearm, then one really ought to buy one as soon as possible. Because at its current rate of appreciation, it is a great investment. Every time anyone writes about it, the cost is greater than the last time anyone Road about it. But as far as the OP goes, he is just looking to make waves.
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