What does a tonearm contribute to the sound of a turntable?

@fsonicsmith Cool. Thanks for the clarification. Another thing I've often wondered is how good the tiny wires connecting the cartridge to the tonearm are. With all the fuss and expense about IC's and speaker cables, are these overlooked?

Thanks, Chuck. I'm digesting all the information at the moment. 

I replaced my ancient sumiko ft3 with a jelco 750 eb. One of the things I noticed after installing and calibrating was that I had to use a bit more volume with the jelco to get to the same levels as before with the sumiko. Why might this be?

I have a version of damping tape on the drivers in my Spatials. Their previous owner put it on and said it really helped control the sound. I took his word for it.

A few more things:

1. I'm going to re-drill my armboard; I'm off by 3.5mm on my Feickert and when I used Stevenson alignment, I feel the connector wires from the head shell to the cartridge are too smushed together.
   
2. I conducted a decibel test using the Ultimate Analogue Test LP left and right azimuth and found that my right speaker tests about 10 decibels higher than my left. Yet when playing Dire Straits' BIA 45 reissue and comparing with with the SACD, the instruments were in their correct channels and had comparable loudness levels. Waddup with that? I plan on swapping tubes on my Pathos tonight to see if that's the culprit.
   

Btw - everyone's advice and straightforward info is much appreciated.

@larry5729.   Nice ironic post illustrating the short-sightedness and lack of audio depth of much of the younger population. You perfectly illustrated how a certain segment of the listening population just isn't deep enough to appreciate vinyl.  Well done.

@tomic601 Yes, the FT-3 was a great tonearm. I just wanted something different. PM me if you'd like to make an offer and I can give you details and pictures.

So those of you with the ethos on this: I have the Jelco 750EB coupled with a Hana SL cartridge. Compliance complementary?

@hdm Thanks for the feedback. I have indeed damped the tonearm according to its specs, starting with two drops in the well so it's just under halfway.

With the new Jelco, I now have not one, not two, but six signal interfaces between the cartridge and the speakers:

1. cartridge to headshell/arm
2. headshell/arm to Premiere Interface DIN (little box on the back of the VPI - which I desperately want to get rid of)
   
3. Premier Interface DIN to RCA
4. RCA to phono pre
5. Phono pre to amp
6. Amp to speakers

Is this normal?

@fsonicsmith Wait - I'm curious. What well-worn, rutted road?

@slaw I was wondering the same thing

Not to mention I had to adjust the VTA after reinstalling the arm, so that may be a factor as well.

An interesting update:

I just got in and installed a set of Morrow Ph-4 phono cables, DIN-to-RCA. They replaced the ancient Sumiko PIB-1 junction box fro which I was running Acoustic Zen Silver Reference 2 IC's to the phono pre.


Morrow's literature advised a millenia-long break-in time, like 500 hours for the cables, so I swapped out my relatively new Hana SL cartridge for my old Benz Micro Ace S cartridge so the latter could take the brunt of the break in time and wear and tear. I Baerwald aligned it, adjusted the tracking force, and sat back for a few listens.
Holy crap! Just a bigger, more full sound than the Hana ever produced. Maybe it's the Benz's 8.8 gram weight versus the Hana's 5 gram that made the former play better with the new Jelco 750 in terms of compliance. Idk; but there was a palpable presence that hadn't been there before.


I know - lots of changes in variables here: new phono cables; new DIN connection; new cartridge.

Thoughts?