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Top 5 Tonearms Newer or Vintage Under 2500 That Will Beat anything above/below 2.5k?

From all your tonearm experiences trials errors comparisons etc is there a Top 5 tonearm list that are known for their musical superlatives in all music ranges and genres? including finer detail nuances feeling, 3d sound but also deep bass and midbass, basspunch. Airy highs. And importantly long hours listening without fatigue.
The criteria also to be met are easy setups for all angles vta vfa azimuth anti skating etc 
The Tonearm must also the ability to use more than just one or two cartridge compatibility.

Probable Turntables to be Used: Garrard 301/401, Lenco, Linn, Thorens 124, Technics 1100 1200 10 or 15. 

Heres the list i compiled of ToneArms to pick from.
Feel free to mention others.

  • Tw Raven, D Talea, Graham 2.2/phantom, Moerch, Origin Live, Vpi, 
  • AudioMods

  • Clear Audio, Stax, Rega, Technics 500/1000, Sumiko, Alphason, Black Widow, One unipivot, Saec, Clear Audio, Basis Vector, Triplanar

  • Origin Silver, Rega 9, Linn Ittok, Project, Technics 500/1000,
  •  Alphason, Audio Technica, Dynavector 507

    Grace, Mission, Grado, Ortofon, EMT, Thorens Tp,
  • ESL, Sme 3012, Sme 3009, Sme V, IV,

  • Schroeder, Kuzma, Eminent, Ikeda, Breuer, 
    Stax, Kenwood 007 arm, Sonys top Arm, Artemis
vinny55
folkfreak's avatar
folkfreak
1,349 posts
 
@2channel8 i used to own a Wand+. It’s a great sounding tonearm for the money and in my system outperformed an SME-IV. It definitely has a unipivot zip and liveliness that was what I was looking for. As with any unipivot it takes some attention to get the setup right and errors in setup will be very audible. I think the + model is the sweet spot in the line and the 10.5” length is also a great fit with most turntables. I swapped it out for a Talea when one came up used and that’s not really a fair comparison but at least tonally the Wand and the Talea share much of the same DNA
fleschler
1,923 posts
 
I am lucky to have had my SME-IV modified by the late Brooks Berdan.  He retrofitted the interior wiring with the then best Cardas wire and shot a closed cell foam into the arm wand to eliminate vibration.  Those two steps eliminated the mid-bass bump, making the sound linear from top to bottom.  Also, the horrible SME Din was replaced with an RCA junction box where I fit the finest low capacitance Grover Huffman phono cables to a Audio Interface SUT.   So, I vote for an SME-IV modified as being a top notch arm for the price.
fourwnds's avatar
fourwnds
277 posts
 
The transfi tonearms are not gonna be around much longer if anyone is sitting on the fence. 

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