Wood armwand vs Metal armwand

The trick here is you want to control resonance in the arm wand, such that it does not talk back or editorialize.

Most wood arm wands I have seen do not appear to be treated for resonance issues. Some might argue that they don't need that; they would be wrong. The better metal arm wands are indeed treated- less expensive ones are not and so seem to have more coloration.

Resonance is not the only issue. Effective mass with the cartridge also plays a role, which is part of mechanical resonance which is a different issue. I point this out to reduce confusion.

A metal arm wand can improve shielding, which may result in lower noise.

Here in Minnesota there can be another concern- humidity, which will not affect a metal arm wand, but will certainly affect a wooden one! I'd hate to have an expensive arm wand crack in dry humidity, or have it change dimension or warp. That seems like a problem not worth having to me.

^^ this.

I also do not find the sound to vary from day to day, with my Reed tonearms. When rechecking my settings they are not different either. So at least IME stability is a non issue.

How about year to year? You may not notice a very minor change from one day to the next but over a year or two it might be quite audible.

Sarcher30, Good! I've had my Triplanar about 9 years. No problems with it either.

I don't think its realistic to compare speakers and tonearms. That's a bit of a stretch. But I agree- in the case of speakers, I much prefer wood products (paper) for speaker cones to metal...