What is the best tonearm at about 3000 budget?

I prefer the new Vector from Basis Audio. It is a serious high performance tonearm that is as good if not better than either of the 2 AirTangent tonearms I've owned.

Origin Live Silver 250. The British HiFi press called it "possibly the best tonearm in the world right now". The TNT Audio review said it was hard to categorize, since it has absolutely no coloration or flaws, and thus categorized it a the ideal "reference" tool, to assess the performance of other high-end tonearms. I have had one myself for several months now, and it blows away any tonearm I have ever owned, or heard. My assessment is that it has the best blend of all the best qualities of the top flight tonearms with little or no shortcomings that plague the others. It is easily competitive with the $3000-$4000 offerings, and it only costs $725. Hard to believe? You bet. And so is the sound. If you could imagine the bass authority of the SME V, with none of the overly-analytical nature, the midrange and high end liquidity of the Graham 2.2, and virtually no colorations, with the ease of set-up of a Rega, and the ability to handle extremely low-compliance low-output MC cartridges, this is the Silver 250. Even if one of these other great arms was a very thin hair better than the Silver 250, would it be worth 4 times the price? My money is on the Silver 250.

Definitely the Breuer Typ 8 or the Brinkmann!

I'm so glad the Breuer and Brinkman tonearms are being manufactured again after a decade's absence. I wonder if the new arms capture the Swiss essence of the original: fine chocolate, cuckoo clocks and polite federalism, which when experienced simultaneously are often mistaken for neutrality. That said, the Type 8's rendering of acoustic accordion will make you weep. Really.

Ummm...because of the chocolaty, precise, polite presentation or because you're listening to accordian on a $3,000 tonearm?

Now, all you accordian zealots don't flame me...my tongue is firmly in cheek.