His reaction of course was understandable. But he was not right because my speaker system works well with various CD players and standard turntables and arms. I have built various turntables myself, the first one in 1980. I always had the desire to try my luck in tone arms. It never came to materializing several ideas because I was too busy writing and doing other important things.
Life is all about priorities.
But after talking to a veteran in audio, a rather old man who had spent his life at building his own arms and cartridges, I decided to try my luck. As you know balsa wood is very light and you do not reach easily the limits of arm mass in relation to the compliance of the cartridge. So I combined the wood with strips of thin aluminum to improve the sonic properties of the balsa and to heighten the effective mass of the arm in order to be able to mount a Denon DL 103 cartridge. That arm performed rather well and provided a fabulous and lifelike transient response. Although visitors liked the sound of it, I myself thought that some coloring was evident.