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What defines a good tonearm

I'm in the market for a very good tonearm as an upgrade from an SME 345 (309). Most of the tonearms I have used in the past are fixed bearing except for my Grace 704 unipivot. I dont have a problem with the "wobble" of a unipivot, and they seem the simplest to build, so if they are generally at least as good as a fixed pivot, why wouldnt everyone use a unipivot and put their efforts into developing easier vta, azimuth and vtf adjustments, and better arm materials. Or is there some inherent benefit to fixed pivot that makes them worth the extra effort to design and manufacture
manitunc

Showing 1 response by stevecham

stevecham
3,340 posts
 
So much misinformation here.

A properly designed unpivot arm does not rock due to stylus tracking simply because the design has the stylus aligned with the pivot point; there is no torsional leverage and the only degrees of freedom from the stylus are the planes in the vertical and horizontal, which is what ANY arm has to have. There is no torsional "rocking" due to stylus motion in the two planes of a stereo recording going and what little of very low frequency may be provided from record warps and non-centered hole are effectively damped and remian unheard.
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