Why are modern arms so ugly?

I would like to see the SME V without the lines and print on its armtube. It would be more difficult to set up, but it would look great, IMO, as an example of form-follows-function, precision industrial art. Especially, the new SME V-12 with the headshell finger lift removed.

Regarding modern tonearm designs: what do you make of the new Durand Telos 12" arm? It seems to be a very stripped down design. Early reports from the few who have heard it are very positive. It will be at RMAF.

Surely you jest Doug,

Who am I to go against the recommendations of the arm manufacturer? I use the lines to get a ball park for level, ie parallel to the LP surface of an average weight LP, then I listen and do some VTA adjustment. It's similar to balancing the arm during set up before you apply the estimated range for VTF on the SME V. Then I listen and adjust VTF and VTA again and then again until it sounds right. I follow the recommendations of the cartridge and arm manufacturers for the initial set up and THEN start the fine tuning by ear. My Air Tight manual also suggests to start with the top of the cartridge level putting the SRA in a range, and then adjust by ear. I, for one, was never "tempted" to set the arm level and then forget it. For those who are, those lines are helpful. You, and I to perhaps a lesser degree, will fine tune everything by ear. And that is how it should be for most of us.

I still think it would be more difficult to set up without the lines printed on the armtube. That tapered tube would be tough to set parallel to the record surface. Otherwise, I don't know how one would start the process.

One could try to set VTF without first roughly balancing the arm to neutral but I would not want to risk setting my stylus on a guage to read 6 grams. I want to at least first start in a ballpark. My eyes certainly are not good enough to get a ballpark 92 degree SRA and my fingers are not good enough to estimate what 2 grams feels like.

Either I'm missing something, or you are having some fun with me. This thread needs some humor injected in it.

I still rather strongly think the arm would be more beautiful without the lines, especially the 12" version, but you are the first to even acknowledge that suggestion, though you haven't commented on my point. What say you?

Looking at my SME V tonight, I noticed for the first time, or at least was conscience of it for the first time, that the printed horizontal lines are only on one side - the outside. That's quite obvious, but I never made a note of this before. The inside of the arm does look better IMO. Now enough of highjacking this thread. The SME V is a thirty year old design. Hardly "modern".

Hi Doug,

That's a very good explanation of our mutual goal. I agree completely with what you wrote, but you left out how you begin the process to get the VTA/SRA approximate before you do the fine tuning by ear. I assume you use a loupe or magnification of some sort and look directly at the stylus/cantilever. Your eyes may be good enough, mine aren't.

My only point, which I guess was not made clearly enough, is this: I can't use my eyes alone and don't have the proper magnification devices so I get an approximate starting point by leveling my arm tube with a measuring device. My cartridge top is presumably flat and my SME fixed headshell is presumed to be flat (or close enough). This I believe gets me to a good starting point.

Perhaps I will invest in a USB microscope and take my table to my computer to start the cartridge set up in the future.

I understand your point and read no bias against the SME arm in your post, though you may secretly harbor such sentiments. The SME V does not have adjustable azimuth and its VTA screw is awkward and not repeatable, for instance ; )