SME III tonearm 1978

[pcourtney]

Hi forum friends, need some help, my dad has given me two SME III tonearms (he thinks he bought them in 1978), fortunately it looks like everything is there, I downloaded the manual and looked on google etc, have managed to assemble them both, but you hear all sorts of things about the bearings and other failures of things not quite working as they shoud, not surprised at this I suppose for being over 40 years old :)

https://zstereo.co.uk/2014/05/12/sme-series-iii-2/

before I do anything, I was wondering what decks have been known to work well with the III series back in the day, I would like to get something to equal or better my Beogram 8002, I know Pink Triangle used the SME III (according to google) , Lenco L78, Kenwood KD 500, Technics SL-150mk2, Thorens TD 125 and the Ariston RD 80 all seem to have used them, would prefer to use a UK made turntable if possible though, but not ruling anything out at this stage

have lots of MM carts to play with, must be about 50 of them, will have to get my microscope out and look at them all very closely first, he tells me that they are all pretty well suited to the low mass MM genre of the time, but the popularity of this type of thing ( except for B&O ) kinda fizzled out in the eighties and MC took over and SME had to shelve the III and introduce the IV and V in the mid eighties to get back on track ( sorry for the pun )

https://www.tnt-audio.com/sorgenti/smeiv_e.html

[Beobloke]

I would like to get something to equal or better my Beogram 8002

Beating a Beogram 8002 with an SME III?

Not going to happen I’m afraid!! ;)

[pcourtney]

thought as much, can I get closish perhaps ??

NB as my 8002 is not playing nicely at the moment !

[high.spirits]

I had Thorens TD160 S with the Series III and it worked well. I now use a Gyrodec withe the series III with high compliance catridges and it works very well.

Being a very light arm limits you on cartridges but worth experimenting as you can get some excellent results with the various weight combinations.

[anthonyTD]

I have one on a 401 too!
I think they are more cartridge dependant than the original 3009 though.
A...

[pcourtney]

Michell - yes they were local to me back in the seventies, shall look out for them - good call !
would be lovely to have one of those beautiful objet d'art in my lounge :-)

[high.spirits]

Great turntables

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50726427606_40a5975f1a_z.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2khwcDq)P1000779 (https://flic.kr/p/2khwcDq) by Martin (https://www.flickr.com/photos/martinzzzpics/), on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50726519732_7dd04b72a2_z.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2khwF2N)P1000655 (https://flic.kr/p/2khwF2N) by Martin (https://www.flickr.com/photos/martinzzzpics/), on Flickr

[pcourtney]

wow - that is spot on - even the wife wants me to have this one !

does anyone know where there is one that is in terrible condition / does not work / needs hundreds of hours of work to get it back at its best, would
really like to get my teeth into a project like that for the next 2 to 3 months - there must be one out there that needs a lot of love and TLC !

[AJSki2fly]

wow - that is spot on - even the wife wants me to have this one !

does anyone know where there is one that is in terrible condition / does not work / needs hundreds of hours of work to get it back at its best, would
really like to get my teeth into a project like that for the next 2 to 3 months - there must be one out there that needs a lot of love and TLC !

Before you go down the Gyrodec rabbit hole have a read of this thread https://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?52213-Cheap-upgrade-for-michell-gyro, it is a rather long thread but the gist is that there are several basic things that can be improved on to get a good sound out of one, I did them all to some success.

[pcourtney]

OMG - just read all 61 pages - Pete's Pylons here I come - I have placed a Wanted ad for a Gyrodec - please ask all your friends if they
have one languishing in the garage and its not been used for 20 years :-)

[high.spirits]

OMG - just read all 61 pages - Pete's Pylons here I come - I have placed a Wanted ad for a Gyrodec - please ask all your friends if they
have one languishing in the garage and its not been used for 20 years :-)

Mine is standard and sounds good to my ears.
I would try in standard form first with the Series III before trying all the mods. It can get a chain reaction with upgrades and all are very subjective. Once you start mods you may want an SME IV and expensive MC to get the best. Can get very costly.

[Beobloke]

I love my Gyro SE and the few non-Michell mods I’ve heard for it simply change its character a bit rather than make an ‘improvement’ to my ears. That said, I still haven’t tried out Michell’s newly designed damped springs on mine so must give them a go!

I have to be honest, though, and point out that, if someone with a Gyrodec and an SME III asked me for advice on their best first upgrade, my advice would be “ditch the SME III and fit something better”! ;)

[pcourtney]

Hi Adam, yep, you are right, I have been offered an early AC Gryodec with Transformer arm ( Rega tube, the last thing that Michell did before he sadly passed away) , and so I have aleady given up on using the SME III on one of these iconic decks :mental: