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Tonearms: Ripoff?

If you search for tonearm recommendations you'll find an overwhelming amount of praise for $1k and less products. Audiomods and Jelco are the two most mentioned.

The Audiomods is just some guy making Rega-based tonearms in a workshop. Just some guy is putting out tonearms that compete with tonearms that cost many times the price -- from the likes of SME, Clearaudio, VPI, Graham, etc.

So the question is -- are tonearms just a scam? How is it that everyone loves Audiomods and Jelco to death and never talks about / dismisses high end tonearms? Is it because there's no real difference between one of these low-cost tonearms and the high end ones? Is an Audiomods Series V ** really ** the equivalent of a SME V? Some guy in a workshop equals the famed precision of SME? Is that once you have the math and materials worked out all tonearms are essentially the same? Or is it that most owners of record players online are dumpster-diving for vintage gear and simply can't afford to listen to better?

So, what's going on?
madavid0
noromance's avatar
noromance
9,545 posts
 
@rsfphil I rarely ever comment on politics and I apologise to others on this thread. Fox is not in the same league as CNN no matter how often trump says it. Fox is an entertainment channel bankrolled by the alt-right to further a nefarious agenda benefiting dirty fuel profiteers and MIC stakeholders while subverting government of the people by the people. CNN merely spins their reporting to point out that fact.
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jollytinker
213 posts
 
c'mon folks, let's leave the media politics out of this. It's a rabbit hole even worse than debates about CDs and vinyl.  
madavid0 OP
214 posts
 
The isn’t whether I want to spend a lot of money on high end tonearms or not, the issue is if they are a ripoff or not. Do they offer audio performance above cheaper ones? This is NOT hard to understand.

So far there is ONE poster who says he’s seen an improvement moving up from cheaper tonearms to more expensive ones. The others have all refused to address the question or admit that they think high end tonearms are a ripoff.
jollytinker
213 posts
 
Actually, @madavid0, the issue IS about whether you want to spend money on a high-end tonearm.  you have a conspiratorial mindset in which anyone who disagrees with you must obviously be hiding an uncomfortable "truth" about tonearms and audio in general. Since you won't actually trust anyone's word unless they're "on your side," this discussion is pointless. The only answer is for you to pony up the cash for a high-end tonearm and hear it for yourself. then hopefully you'll do something useful and post your (honest) assessment on this forum. 
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