Considering the Audio Technica ATLP120...

That's why i said i don't like tangential arms. They are straight shaped and very short and lightweighted.
Denon DP47F for example has a pivot type very short straight tonearm and it tracks pretty badly.
Many hifi enthusiasts mount longer 12" arms on their customised TTs because the arm is longer and tracks better.
However these 12" arms are always straight shaped or J shaped never S shaped.

 

That's very funny!
Most of these turntables come from the same factory in China. If they discontinue a model, NOBODY! gets laid off. There are still plenty of other turntables to be made.
The idea behind the AT-120LPXUSB is to build for a lower price level to compete with the Crosleys and other cheaper turntables. You only get what you pay for, and in some cases less.

 

I was just checking and on my AT-LP120's, the tone arm measures about 12" from the end of the counterweight to the end of the headshell. If it were any longer, it wouldn't fit under the dust cover. It's about 10" from pivot to the end of the headshell. On my old radio station QRK turntable, with a 12" platter, the "S" shaped tone arm is even a bit longer. The TT deck is larger than the AT-LP120's. It may have been made by Rek-O-Kut in the 1970's but branded QRK. I also remember, on some of the 16" radio station transcription turntables I had worked with had been retrofitted to "S" type tone arms and they were 15-16" in length. Putting a 12" tone arm on one of those would really look out of place. In the 1970's, they were still using 16" discs with commercials on them. Often, they would have a newer 12" turntable and a longer "S" style tone arm mounted on a plinth to the side of the TT deck.

 

Tonearm length is measured from the pivot area where the bearings are to the cartridge collar not from behind the counterweight.
AT LP120 is nothing more but a Technics 1200mk2-5 clone and its arm length is 9 2/3 inches if i remember the user manual correctly.
The 12" arms are much longer and much more expensive and usually are used for old Pathe records or transcription discs of 14 or 16 even 18" big records.

 

The Technics SL-1200 MK1 tonearm is the same effective length as your Denon DP47F example at 220 mm (8.66"), the 1200MK2 and later increased it 10 mm to 230 mm (9.06"). The effective length is measured from pivot to stylus tip.

 

Yes and even 9" arms are not exactly the recommended choice not to mention shorter ones. 10" arm would be a golden middle i think. I have read several reviews where users complained to have very bad IGD problems due to arm being too short.
If they are lying then so am i.

 

The key is mass. As turntable manufacturers discovered decades ago, mass, not just tracking weight or even angle, helps a turntable track better. In a commercial application, like a radio station, a record needed to play through from beginning to end, without skipping or sticking and to make the record sound as god as possible without distortion or IGD.

 

Clearly you are not an engineer or you would know that the lead in the bottom of the AT-LP120 does in fact help with resonance. Resonance is simply the excitement of a natural frequency and every component has its own natural frequency (even electronic circuits!....although the plate does nothing for these obviously). Vibration can excite and item to resonate if the vibration is at or near it natural frequency, at this point the vibration energy can be amplified by several orders of magnitude and thus you here (or feel) the resonance, left unchecked sustained operation at resonance can even cause the item to structurally fail. The Lead is probably compensating for the resonance of the base or possibly the plinth as a whole. There are two ways to change resonance 1) add stiffness i.e. the stiffer something is the higher the natural frequency. 2) adding MASS i.e. the heavier something is the lower the natural frequency. So AT added this steel plate in order to tune the natural frequency response that was exciting something to vibrate at certain frequencies.

 

Something that is similar to the AT-LP120 that I have as a secondary table, is a Teac TN300, that cost < $200 on sale. Has the AT95e cartridge, and a straight arm. Sound is good, not awesome, but very good for the price. I think the stylus on these is about 300 hours for the elliptical replacement, so in another couple hundred hours of play, I may consider an upgrade, maybe in the ATxx line, or maybe an Ortofon red.