[beat]

Helloo all,
What danger would there be in having a super long tonearm? Say, a super light carbon fiber one. I would think it would give you less tracking distortion, right?
grazie, beat

[JoshK]

Go into vinyl asylum's archives and search for threads discussing the benefits/trade-offs of 12" versus 9" arms.  Most modern arms are 9", not 12" anymore.  I think the same ratio would apply to even longer arms but to a greater degree.   I think I remember reading somewhere that the benefits of 12" is tracking error lessening but that you get more distortion in a certain freq range, like the low end.  Don't quote me on this but you'll see the reasons.

[Tonto Yoder]

I'll admit to not understanding this but the link below on VPI's long arms is relevant:
http://www.vpiindustries.com/jmw10.shtm

The JMW 10 is 10" and the JMW12 is 12."

From VPI--"The JMW features an extremely long arm tube (10 inches from spindle to stylus for the JMW-10 and 12 inches for the JMW-12), with a lower offset angle than shorter tonearms, resulting in linear-tracking accuracy. The vertical height of the tonearm is adjustable during play in 0.00035" increments. Due to the low offset angle of the headshell, the JMW requires no mechanical anti-skating adjustment. The required anti-skating force is provided by the torsion of the leadout wires."

[doug s.]

all other things being equal, a 12" arm will certainly result in less tracking angle error than a 9" arm.  but whether or not a specific 12" arm is better all-around than a specific 12" arm - well, there are a lot more wariables inwolved.  each arm must be judged on its own merits, imo.  many of the most highly-regarded arms are 9".  arms made by sme, rega, wheaton, kuzma, & wilson benesch are some that come to mind...

doug s.

[Romy the Cat]

There area lot of very “dangers” things with the longer arms: suddenly the manufacturers should make larger tables for the same price, suddenly everyone would realize that the contemporary ringy and nosy TTs are disabled to do bass, suddenly the methods that manufacturers user to damp the arm will not be effective, suddenly a crowd of angry people who familiarize himself with  properly implemented 12-14 inch arms would ask “Why the hell you were pushing that 9-inch garbage for years?”

Yep, you were correct the long tonearm is a big evil…

Rgs,
Romy the Cat