SME Series III (3) Mods & Suggestions - Page 5

RCruz · 22nd January 2009, 01:13 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by roro1
Hi i own a sme series III.I have run a cart with a 15 cu compliance with sucess.That is not a high compliance cart by any means.
There are two arm wands.Early and late the late arm haS a larger headshell.It's heavier.I run a light early arm.
I am not suprised rewireing the arm would be a improvement.Every thread i have ever read on older sme arms have stated a nice improvement.Every thread also states how tough a rewire it is so good for you finishing such a tough job.
I love my arm.It's looks and it's sound.?Rember it was designed in the 70's when injection molding was no where near what it is now.Then it was a tecnological tour de force.
I would and have chosen this arm over a newer arm such as the rega 300.
Why?It's sexy!It simply looks gorgeous.It's a s shaped arm.I think thats a advantage.I also bought it because i wanted to run a high compliance cart.I find a benifit here because i run a lower tracking weight.It simply makes sense that you wear out your records less with a sensible vtf.In my case 1.5 grams vs 2 to 3 grams for a lowcompliance mc.
Things like heavy vs light arms go in and out of style.Now it's out of style.LOL so what it works beautifuly.
There are more than a few choices in cart's fot the arm.I presently run a grado sonata 20 cu.It simply sounds great.
I love when guys bash it.I wish they did it more!
Why ?I want a second one.Yep for my other table.
Just so you naysayers know your not being vocal enough.The prices on smeIII's are climbing on ebay.There 100 more now vs a year ago to buy.
If i had one thing bad to say about the arm it would be this.I has tons of tweeks.You really need to dial them in.It's easy to forget a step.If you do dial it in you do get a nice payoff!

Now you are talking !!!

I also wish everybody to bash it because I always dreamed about this beautifull arm..

Ricardo

PS: VTA is VERY important

towaho · 1st February 2009, 04:39 PM

Dear Thomo
I have just picked this thread up after a long period of absense and happy to hear the rewire went well. I still have mine to do and have done the series 2 which is easier. The only real problem it seems is the lack of cheap silver wire.
Gobsmacked at one of the replies you had!!

Thomo · 1st February 2009, 04:57 PM

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.

Panicos K · 1st February 2009, 05:23 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Thomo
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.

A very good point.I have tried these wires too and find them really good.A friend who has rewired his rb300 with vdh MCS150M silver wire has serious complains with brightness.Undisturbed movement of arm bearings can be more important than re-wiring in the end.

Roffensis · 7th January 2010, 11:09 PM

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

webby · 13th January 2010, 12:28 PM

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

Roffensis · 13th January 2010, 01:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by webby

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

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!!

Steve BN1 · 1st February 2010, 09:57 PM

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.

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1st February 2009, 04:39 PM	#42
towaho diyAudio Member Join Date: Nov 2008	Dear Thomo I have just picked this thread up after a long period of absense and happy to hear the rewire went well. I still have mine to do and have done the series 2 which is easier. The only real problem it seems is the lack of cheap silver wire. Gobsmacked at one of the replies you had!!

1st February 2009, 04:57 PM	#43
Thomo diyAudio Member Join Date: Nov 2006	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.

7th January 2010, 11:09 PM	#45
Roffensis diyAudio Member Join Date: Jan 2010	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

13th January 2010, 12:28 PM	#46
webby diyAudio Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: england	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

1st February 2010, 09:57 PM	#48
Steve BN1 diyAudio Member Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Brighton UK	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.