Jomar, I think the comments on materials used as armboards are pretty much consistent. I've read comments saying Metal being fast and detailed, wood being open and natural sounding, acrylic being damped or dry sounding. I was actually using Michell engineering's sme armbase with this particular arm but i wanted to position the armbase at the 2 O' clock position. This meant carving out a portion of the underside of the armbase to bring it to the correct mounting distance and drilling out metal was too much work for me. My problem with wood is sourcing good quality ones. The wood I used wouldn't keep still (this particular tonearm needed an absolutely flat surface or it would keep on swinging in either direction). If I can find good quality wood, I wouldn't hesitate to use it.
My observation regarding armboard materials and how they sound with the rest of my equipment is a matter of implementation or mix and match. When I use the metal armbase with an SUT I get good detail but things turn a bit mellow and quiet(or maybe dull to other ears)when I use acrylic. On an Active phono preamp, surface noise seems to be a bit enhanced on both metal and wood but I get blacker backgrounds with acrylic but still musically satisfying for me.
This is about the same response when i try them with other arms. The equipments I used are rather dated as I was left behind in the nineties. I'll list them down so you can relate to my comments.
PRE- ARC sp-10, PH3, Audible Illusions Mod 3a john Curl, cinemag sut
Amp- ARC D-250, ARC ST-70 C3, Pilot 260/232, dynaco mk2,quad 11
Tonearms- SME 3009/3012, 309, IV.Vi, Odyssey rp1
Carts- denon, Zyx, koetsu, Fidelity research
