Munich 2014

This massive arm of a special carbon fiber laminate from Swedish Analog Technologies appears to take its general inspiration from SME’s Model V but uses brass and composite materials as well as a more traditional mounting system.

The construction is costly and time consuming, which helps explain its high price. The arm’s first resonance frequency is 2.8kHz more than twice that of the SME V. Designer Mark Gomez has a Masters of Science in Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science so he comes to this with a great deal of knowledge.

Clearly this is a product born of vinyl passion: his "real" job is working on projects ranging from the Ariane rocket engine, the Porsche Carrera GT as well as for Saab and Volvo, among others.

He spent a generous amount of time with me going over the design and I came away impressed by the presentation. The arm’s final price hasn’t been firmed up but it will probably be in the neighborhood of $15,000. Read more on the SAT website