Micro Seiki MA505XII

This arm was mounted on a Micro Seiki BL99 turntable with a cheap Audio Technica  mm cartridge.  The  level of  performance achieved made it easy to forget the pain of having recently parted with my  Garrard 301. I believe this owes a large part to the capability and versatility of the arm. It is the only tonearm that I know of that allows adjustments of the tracking force during play. Another two parameters that can be adjusted on the fly are the VTA and the anti-skating. The arm can be easily raised or lowered using a lever  on the lower part of the arm post. The tracking force is applied through a spring inside the rear part of the arm, which is tied to a string which is winded on to a "reel" to apply the tracking force. Using this arm, I spent hours optimizing the various parameters of analog playback. It confirmed for me the importance of arm setup. Even  a good tonearm can sound crappy when these parameters are not looked into.

Used price: $400 - $600 ,depending on construction