What's the best unipivot to arm ever made?

i like to use the term 'prefer' or favorite as opposed to best.

i have not heard all Unipivots, but i've owned a fair number of tonearms and listened to most arms out there. my favorite is the Durand 12" Telos. which is also my favorite tonearm of any type.

i use 15ips 1/4 inch master tape dubs as my reference and the Telos is as good as those in my system. it's simply more precise and without distortion than other arms i've tried. the whole reproduction chain falls away and you just have music.

it's not cheap and there is a long line to get one but it's my preference.

hi Lew,

i've not heard Pete Riggle's arm; but it has been recommended to me. i understand Pete lives east of the mountains here in Washington State.

i think that the Telos has something in common with other minimalist-out-of-box thinking tonearm designs. at first glance it does look simple, basic, and even maybe a touch crude. on closer inspection it's crude like a cruise missile is crude. the perfect uncompromised tool for a particular job....and nothing more.

in fact; think of the Telos as like a Manhattan Project of tonearms. what if you were able to rethink everything, and then could apply free thinking and an unlimited materials budget to every bit. and some pretty sophisticated computer modeling was used too.

Pentatonia,

just over three short years ago, Joel Durand was an audiophile doing a DIY project of building a tonearm from scratch on a whim. he documented each step thru that process on a personal website/blog which at one point i looked thru. he tried every possible way to have a bearing, including looking upwards and downwards. i'm no techie or engineer, so i don't have much more than a gut feel for the consequences of those approaches.

in any case, i know he has considered that question from many different perspectives.

Cousinbilly,

not all 12" tonearms are created equal; but like they say, size does matter. :^)

and FYI both the Talea 1 and Talea 2 are 10.5" arms, not 9.5".