Cart recs for sme

[chelsea]

Having just sold my arm what i have been using a koetsu with i'am now downgrading.

Have a sme Series 3.
Have only used MC carts so wondered if there is a good MC match for it on the cheap 2nd hand.

Have a new Ortofon 530 mk 2 but just waiting for tags to be soldered on before i can try it.
Will probably sell the 530 so will use the cash from that.

Any ideas?

[Rare Bird]

Hi Stu
Series III is a low mass arm at home with High Compliance carts. That Ortofon might be ok with it..

[chelsea]

Thanks andre.


Yes i'am guessing it will work well as it seems well rated.
Interested to know if from MC to MM will leave me disappointed.

[chelsea]

Just looking on vinyl engine.
Think i may go with a dynavector 10x4 or 10x5 if one comes up cheap enough.

[synsei]

I am using a Denon DL160 on my Series III Stu and it sounds superb ;)

[Rare Bird]

Well there you go chaps that little lot are all low compliance carts which should be a disaster in that arm :eyebrows:

[petrat]

Yes, needs a high compliance cart, which pretty much rules out all MCs. I used to have a Cartridge Man Musicmaker, which was very good ... and as soft as plasticine. Even secondhand that may be a bit out of your price range, but it was built from a Grado (Gold, I recall), which sometime come up secondhand, so that may be a good shout? Grados are popular in USA, so perhaps could get a bargain over there? Or someone may have one abandoned in a drawer somewhere, as they really don't work that well in modern medium mass arms (I sold mine for that very reason. Len Gregory recommends a lightweight Hadcock arm, I recall). SME III is a lovely thing, by the way.

(Edit: Grado also has a hint of that Koetsu 'tonality', so may suit you well)

[walpurgis]

Keep an eye out for a 'Classic' ADC! Good ones still crop up on eBay now and then and they sound marvelous.

[DSJR]

The SME III used to be available with Ortofon concord-OM series cartridges attached to a version of the arm-wand, so should be a perfect match. OM styli are still quite widely available and IMO are a no brainer here..

I should advise AGAINST using lower compliance MC's with this arm - in my experience the whole is WORSE than the sum of the parts.

ADC's? yes, but they are a bit fragile although some styli can still be got at a price. Since I ubderstand Jico made the XLM III stylus with tapered cantilever and naked stone, they could also be a source of better quality replacements - do they do an SAS for the XLM/ZLM?

[chelsea]

Thanks for the ideas chaps.

[Rare Bird]

AKG 'P8ES' is a good un for it

[DSJR]

If you can find one still working. The coil wires were tightly held in the clear plastic outer frame and fatigued in many bodies, breaking irreparably. The diamonds weren't always good either! A huge shame, 'cos the P8ES could sound really good for a fixed coil cartridge at the time - I never heard the Super Nova version..

[Oldpinkman]

I probably haven't got the hang of this yet and probably have the budget all wrong but the goldring 1022 and multiple variants should work well and is a good cartridge. Otherwise shure v15-5 or 4 or m97e. Avoid mc's. Apart from the resonance of the system being out of range the bearings aren't up to it.

[ninedecks]

I have a 111s on a Thorens TD160. I've used the Shure V15 type 4 and also the Ortofon 2m Blue ( a tight fit but when used with the additional SME mounting plate/weight, worked like a dream).
Dave

[chelsea]

Have arm and ortofon on now and very happy with the sound.
Think the 2m range were based on this cart.

Picks more surface noise than the koetsu so need to be extra careful buying quality vinyl.

[DSJR]

Try fine tuning the arm-height and DON'T expect that the arm HAS to be perfectly level... A little down at the back may help a bit with the surface noise, but hopefully won't slug the sense of space and 'air' in the presentation :)

[Rare Bird]

That's it dave, when i set mine up last i dropped it from parallel to the record surface buy only a few mill, made a hell of a difference..

[walpurgis]

Here's a lovely sounding cartridge that will work just fine in the SME.

Jason P just listed it here on AOS in 'Private Exhibitions'

http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?26751-ADC-XLM-MkIII-MM-Cartridge

[jandl100]

A Shure V15iii should work very well - shame I recently sold one with a brand new Ed Saunders stylus.

[DSJR]

It does Jerry, and the Ed Saunders stylus retains the 'spund' of the III series (the SAS changes it for better or worse, depending on view).

I LOVE the ADC's though, since the sound is so easy and less tense than the V15 III can be on some records. I suspect the Shure is more truthful to what's really there, but it's a question once again of 'monitoring' the vinyl quality for flaws, or keeping it clear but listening to the music. I have to say that recently, I've been getting great sounds from my NOS V15 III which the Dual 701 arm was designed and 'tuned' for, but keep an ADC and Rega Carbon to hand as well - far more fun than a clunky old SPU that needs thousands of quids worth of step up device to make it work :lol: - apologies, I couldn't resist it :respect:

[chelsea]

Well after a couple of days using the sme/ortofon have to say i'am really enjoying it.
At first i set the anti skate at 0.5 and tracking at 1.3,was jumping on a few records i tried so upped the anti skate to 1.5.

Worked much better but playing a couple of excellent condition records today it still got stuck.
A couple others it was fine.

Any ideas?

[Jason P]

My ADC is still here ;)

[DSJR]

I always believed the OM series to be 1.5g trackers with the lower models (3 and 5) at 1.75 to 2g......

The SME bias can be set two ways. The 'official' way is for first, the line should be level and not tilting up or down as it runs through the roller - that's a given and easily achieved. The second thing is that SME suggest having the line at 90 degrees to the adjusting rod at the beginning of the record, the amount of correction getting slightly lower toward side end. I used to set it the other way round, with the line at 90 degrees to the rod at side end, and since this is so easy to do on a Series III, may I suggest you give it a go. On the Series 2 Improved models, the amount of bais correction was around 1/4g too high, but I don't know if this was sorted on the III as it was on the Series V and brethren. It's arbitary anyway and varies with the cartridge used :)

[chelsea]

Yes I have it set to the end rather than the start.
TOOK the back off last night and set it all up again,it now is working fine.
Have set tracking and bias both at 1.5g.