Hi Towaho. I gave up on the silver wire as it was too stiff and impeded the free movement of the arm. Instead I bought some copper litz and cart tags from here
I now have one length from cart to phono stage with no breaks/joints. This was a large improvement over the original wiring.
Cheers, Lee.
edit: those Carillon speakers look fantastic.
I now have one length from cart to phono stage with no breaks/joints. This was a large improvement over the original wiring.
Cheers, Lee.
edit: those Carillon speakers look fantastic.
There seems today to be a quite heavy bias against this arm. I bought one some weeks ago, and it's superb! Far more musical and detailed than another arm I could mention which, despite modes, still sounds dry and drab!
The SME is incredibly detailed, and very low mass obviously, and not made of plastic as some would have us think. It's carbon fibre, the stuff of decent headshells no less, famed for its low resonance...... Unlike aluminium! A high compliance cartridge will always suit this arm best, and an Ortofon 540 is a good option 30cu, perhaps a tad bright, but well suited to the arm. I use a Shure V15, and it really sings. The pendulem will swing back to low mass/high compliance arms. Currently we are living with the low compliance heavy arms brigade, who think such devices track better. Well no, they don't!! Anymore than the BSR arms and cartridges did, in fact I would say many a modern cartridge recuts quite a lot as it ploughs through at 2 or 3 grammes!!!
In time I want to rewire my arm, so any advice on the filler material in the carryer arm, do I have to remove it etc, great!! I don't want to ruin the arm. I have just rewired my 3009/II imp. I imagine the SIII arm will reveal even more detail given the quality of the 3009 II, which is another very fine arm btw.
Hats off to SME.
R
The SME is incredibly detailed, and very low mass obviously, and not made of plastic as some would have us think. It's carbon fibre, the stuff of decent headshells no less, famed for its low resonance...... Unlike aluminium! A high compliance cartridge will always suit this arm best, and an Ortofon 540 is a good option 30cu, perhaps a tad bright, but well suited to the arm. I use a Shure V15, and it really sings. The pendulem will swing back to low mass/high compliance arms. Currently we are living with the low compliance heavy arms brigade, who think such devices track better. Well no, they don't!! Anymore than the BSR arms and cartridges did, in fact I would say many a modern cartridge recuts quite a lot as it ploughs through at 2 or 3 grammes!!!
In time I want to rewire my arm, so any advice on the filler material in the carryer arm, do I have to remove it etc, great!! I don't want to ruin the arm. I have just rewired my 3009/II imp. I imagine the SIII arm will reveal even more detail given the quality of the 3009 II, which is another very fine arm btw.
Hats off to SME.
R
My SME III is a great match for the AT33PTG MC cartridge. The sound of this combination is way ahead of my Jolida CD player.
The arm responded really well to a rewire, probably due to the age of the wiring. I would imagine this is responsible for some of the poor reviews. Fine by me, it helps keep the prices down!
Cheers
Ian
The arm responded really well to a rewire, probably due to the age of the wiring. I would imagine this is responsible for some of the poor reviews. Fine by me, it helps keep the prices down!
Cheers
Ian
Hi ian,
How did you get on with the rewire exactly? I managed a look inside my armtube, and assume you simply pulled the noew wires through with the old?
I think the poor reviews are typically due to people using lower compliance cartridges on it which it was not designed for, and criticising the so called "plastic" parts, actually carbon fibre. I agree with your opinion, it is a superb arm and given a good cartridge match and turntable will blow digital clean off the planet together with a good many of the modern arms of today, not least the unadjustable and naff nameless ones which we are told sound better with counterweights almost the size of housebricks.
Take care of it, it's a gem!!
Thats almost right. Some of the 'plastic' is carbon fibre loaded nylon, which is both strong and reasonably lossy so should help damp unwanted vibrations transmitted from the cartridge. The arm tube is hardened with titanium nitride, a ceramic, so it's somewhat stiffer than it looks. From what I remember, the arm resonance behaviour is also desirably complex but with few large peaks in the spectrum. Something not wanted are resonances confined to a few narrow parts of the spectrum as these will tend to give rise to obvious colourations. The flip side is a possible background bloom, which I for one prefer to distinct colouration. After all, something has to happen to any energy that goes into the arm system so you have to make it as innocuous as possible by distributing it evenly across the spectrum and damping it a little. In any case, all cartridges show drastically increasing tracing errors with rising frequency so a bit of background bloom is pretty tolerable, and the SME III seems well behaved in this respect.
I have a Dynavector DV23R in my SME III, both of which I've had from new. The 23R is lowish compliance (15), with a 2.3 mm solid ruby cantilever, and I have the head shell weight added. My III has the damping trough with the low viscosity silicone oil and small (black) paddle. SME were recommending not using the damping last time I called them. But I've found the combination of a reduced amount of the low viscosity oil & the small paddle helps keep the bass nice and tight, plus aids things if an LP has a slight warp. The 23R body is pretty low to the record so needs good behaviour in its arm.
In my opinion, and as someone who does believe in measurements as part of assessing sound, this arm has been unfairly criticised over the years. It does help though to take plenty of time setting up this, or any, arm. I also use the Townshend Elite Alignment Guage to help fine tune tracking error to less than 1% at the worst points and a spectrum analyser to help set the anti-bias. I'd recommend this to anyone, even the most subjective oriented listener.
It's interesting that SME was still producing Series III's for export long after they stopped selling it in the UK. Someone out there still liked it. And it is a great looking arm as well.
I have a Dynavector DV23R in my SME III, both of which I've had from new. The 23R is lowish compliance (15), with a 2.3 mm solid ruby cantilever, and I have the head shell weight added. My III has the damping trough with the low viscosity silicone oil and small (black) paddle. SME were recommending not using the damping last time I called them. But I've found the combination of a reduced amount of the low viscosity oil & the small paddle helps keep the bass nice and tight, plus aids things if an LP has a slight warp. The 23R body is pretty low to the record so needs good behaviour in its arm.
In my opinion, and as someone who does believe in measurements as part of assessing sound, this arm has been unfairly criticised over the years. It does help though to take plenty of time setting up this, or any, arm. I also use the Townshend Elite Alignment Guage to help fine tune tracking error to less than 1% at the worst points and a spectrum analyser to help set the anti-bias. I'd recommend this to anyone, even the most subjective oriented listener.
It's interesting that SME was still producing Series III's for export long after they stopped selling it in the UK. Someone out there still liked it. And it is a great looking arm as well.
The silver wire is invariably stiffer than copper so coil it under the pillar even if it makes for a longer piece of wire. Coil two clockwise and two anticlockwise to counteract any tension in the wire. The more space under the pillar the better so junk and thick bedplates and raise the arm to its limits if possible.
Exactly, towamo.The silver wires can be adjusted satisfactorily when they are long, say 100 cm at least.
Exactly, towamo.
The silver wires can be adjusted satisfactorily when they are long, say 100 cm at least.- Status
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