Tonearm recommendations, thoughts, favorites?

We have a cart thread, why not one for tonearms?

Favorite brands? High, medium or low mass designs? Gimballed? Unipivot? Lengths? Captive wires or DIN connection?

Share your thoughts, experiences or any wild and cool designs

(And besides, I’m in the market and would love to hear from everyone)

If I ever realise the dream of a restored Garard or SP10 Mk2 then from my reading I’d really like either a Thomas Schick 10.5” or Glanz 10”. Likely DIN for the flexibility and options.
 
If I ever realise the dream of a restored Garard or SP10 Mk2 then from my reading I’d really like either a Thomas Schick 10.5” or Glanz 10”. Likely DIN for the flexibility and options.
The Schick 12” is one I’m looking at myself. It doesn’t have a lot of bells and whistles, but is very sleek. I heard the 9” with a Lyra Delos on a Feickert Blackbird at my dealer yesterday, lovely sounding.

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The finish options look nice as well. (Image from Artisan Fidelity)
 
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The Schick 12” is one I’m looking at myself. It doesn’t have a lot of bells and whistles, but is very sleek. I heard the 9” with a Lyra Delos on a Feickert Black it’s at my dealer yesterday, lovely sounding.

I think on a tonearm I’m probably not looking for tonnes of bells and whistles. Sounds good, well made and engineered, sleek and a removable headshell is enough lol!
 
A very different idea is “The Wand” from Design Build Listen out of NZ. From my reading it’s a pain to install and setup cartridges, but sounds stunning. It looks cool as all get out, but a unipivot with no where to safely hold onto would spike my blood pressure too much.

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This is one I ordered yesterday. The Sorane SA-1.2. I’ll be using it as my daily driver with a Zu/Denon DL-103 as my second tonearm on a Feickert Blackbird. It’s supposed to mate very well with low compliance carts/SPU’s, but due to its nifty engineering and clever weights, mate well with medium compliance carts as well. It’s made by Excel in Japan, the same company that makes Hana cart’s.

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I’ve never had the pleasure to audition one. Their DP-8 looks, imposing.

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@HiFi Guy Hey newlywed. Congrats. I know you used to own an Audiomods arm on your Rega. What did you think of the arm, company, and their Series VI arm? It seems like a solid looking option in its price range.


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That would be top of my list if I were in need of an arm. Audiomods is awesome to deal with.
 
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