What does one consider to be the best sounding tonearm

[Vrajbasi]

The Reed 5T Tangential is one amazing sounding arm heard one recently and compared to many silly priced arms offers a lot as it is quite innovative certainly an interesting bit of kit. I have to agree the best arms I have heard tend to be Linear trackers they seem to disappear leaving hardly any character of there own. Generally take a lot more getting used to and don't often come cheap and need care and attention in set up.

[loheswaran]

Money no object - the Derenville active linear tracker -

[Barry]

Money no object - the Derenville active linear tracker

Given the superb precision machining involved, it probably justifies the €30,000 price tag - and it is a true linear tracking tone arm, unlike the Reed. Also, unlike many linear tracking arms, with the Derenville the arm wand is sufficiently long to cope with warp-wow.

I would love to hear one.

[loheswaran]

Given the superb precision machining involved, it probably justifies the €30,000 price tag - and it is a true linear tracking tone arm, unlike the Reed. Also, unlike many linear tracking arms, with the Derenville the arm wand is sufficiently long to cope with warp-wow.

I would love to hear one.

I agree. The active tracking helps prevent the disparity with vertival and horizontal compliance. The cabling is sourced from the medical industry. I think the manufacturer flies out and fits it for you too. Sorry but I think the SAT and the expensive Vertere are still pivoted arms and will be compromised by the various Bearwald v Lofgren arguments ad infinitum...

[Barry]

I suppose it could be argued that anyone who can afford such an arm would only play records that are absolutely flat, so not have any need to worry about warp-wow and 'scrub flutter'. But most of us live in the real world, where records are not always in pristine condition, become warped and sometimes have off-centre holes.

The Reed arm is a pivoted arm, despite the clever active variation of the effective arm length, so whilst the tracking error variation across the record playing surface may be very much lower than that for a conventional pivoted arm, it will not be zero everywhere. Also there appear to be too many bearings and linkages in the design for me to have much conviction of the arm's rigidity and lack of structural resonances.

[Ammonite Audio]

The Reed 5T is of course, at its heart, a conventional pivoted arm but the laser/servo controlled base does not simply rotate, but actually moves fore/aft to follow a precise arc; and that does really mean that it behaves (at the stylus point) exactly like a linear tracker and you should watch some videos to see that in action. The elegance of this system is that the arm itself handles just like any other conventional design, but unlike most linear trackers the effective mass is the same in both horizontal and vertical planes. On top of that, there is no risk of abnormally high sideways loads on the stylus/cantilever which is most certainly a risk with most linear tracking designs where simple gravity can play havoc with air bearing sleds wishing to go 'downhill', or getting stuck on dust etc. Audiophiles love the concept of linear tracking arms, in the belief that eliminating tracing errors will magically result in the best sound reproduction, but I've yet to hear a linear tracker that met this expectation - indeed most seem to be mediocre/average sounding at best, and pretty awful in ergonomic terms. Yes, there will of course be exceptions. The world's best tonearm designers accept the compromise of some tracing errors, because in the round there are far more important aspects of good tonearm design than that.

I nominate the Glanz MH-124S as the best sounding tonearm. Certainly the best that I have ever heard and with build quality that betrays its maker's other life as a Japanese swordsmith.

I suppose it could be argued that anyone who can afford such an arm would only play records that are absolutely flat, so not have any need to worry about warp-wow and 'scrub flutter'. But most of us live in the real world, where records are not always in pristine condition, become warped and sometimes have off-centre holes.

The Reed arm is a pivoted arm, despite the clever active variation of the effective arm length, so whilst the tracking error variation across the record playing surface may be very much lower than that for a conventional pivoted arm, it will not be zero everywhere. Also there appear to be too many bearings and linkages in the design for me to have much conviction of the arm's rigidity and lack of structural resonances.

[Barry]

I'm inclined to agree - linear tracking arms are not the panacea they are claimed to be.

Unless the arm is driven by say a lead screw (with a sensor to adjust for sled advancement or delay relative to the groove), the arm has to be pushed by the record groove and stylus and cantilever of the cartridge. Despite what some say, I cannot believe that does not produce asymmetric wear of the stylus. Also if the arm is moved by the record groove, there will be considerable torque placed on the linear bearing of the arm. That is why most linear trackers have short arm wands, which means they do not handle record warp well.

But that said, the 'cost no object', state of the art Derenville arm does command respect and would appear to have overcome most of the problems of linear tracking arms. Whereas, despite the obvious ingenuity, the Reed 5T looks to be unnecessarily complicated with multiple bearings, that causes me to suspect the structural rigidity and lack of flexing resonances. I would however be interested in hearing both arms.

For me "the less is more": a simple pivoted tone arm with good low friction and stiction-free bearings is all I require. Tracking error second harmonic distortion need not be more than ~0.5% with a well designed arm. This is one of the least distortion artefacts of record reproduction, compared with those caused by tracing ('pinch') distortion and distortion of the cartridge itself.

[Vrajbasi]

Two of the best arms I have ever heard are the Airtangent reference which was 14000 in 1992 so crazy money this was a complex thing with remote VTA, the other the arm that came with the Rockport system 111. Both arms were made for short periods due to cost of production but show that linear tracers are special beasts. I like the reed 5t after hearing it againt the top glanz and even the twice as expensive sat. I would need to spend more time with it at home to give a definitive answer, but I could hear its was a special arm indeed.

[Miller]

Probably the best I owned was Bill Firebaugh's Well Tempered tonearm on so many levels but love the one your with for convenience at least - SME 3009 MK1:
My friend has a SME V on a blazed up Orbe and another a SME Model 20... Both are still shocked at what the MK1 can achieve...

[Derainer]

Given the superb precision machining involved, it probably justifies the €30,000 price tag - and it is a true linear tracking tone arm, unlike the Reed. Also, unlike many linear tracking arms, with the Derenville the arm wand is sufficiently long to cope with warp-wow.

I would love to hear one.

Barry,
I don't know where you live - but if you want to listen to our linear tracker - I very kindly invite you to visit me in Lippstadt (Germany).
Bring your favourite LPs and lots of time. I will take care of food and drinks.

Best Rainer