SME V and Technics EPA-100

Enjoy! :)

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I used an Ittok for many years, in it's natural habitat, and quite liked it.

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Yes, it can be fun on an LP12 in the right system. Must run!

Laters,
Marco.

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Originally Posted by Marco

I hope you're not getting terribly upset about all this because we usually get on quite well

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Not at all, disagreement makes for lively debate.

I put an Ittok on a Voyd once, ....for about 5 minutes. It was all midrange, indeed flicking the tube told you exactly what it sounded like. I can see why, in combination with the overly warm LP12 & their fizzy cartridges it was a combination that worked albeit without much dynamic range. However, it was like a fish on a bicycle on any kind of neutral platform.

I'd have tought it would have been more like 'tits on a fish'!




Hmmm..... Smiley deleted. Smiley central seems to have some sort of inbuilt 'spam engine'. Not good!

Conversely, the SME III had such a poor reputation yet I got good sound from it mounted on a Strathclyde STD-305M running a Dynavector 20A cartridge. Not the last word in dynamics, but smooth and very listenable.

I still have an SME III and Michell TecnoArm(A) to sell. Must get photographing.

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Originally Posted by pure sound

Jelco have been going a long time & certainly have plenty of experience in making decent pivoted arms at a variety of price levels. If only they'd do a 12" version of the 750 I'd consider getting one.

An SME wired as mine is would be well over £2K now maybe £2.5K I don't know. Alot anyway! If I were buying a new one now I'd probably go for either the 312S or the new 12" version of the V.

The whole 'not 000's of pounds better' thing is something of a red herring. Different levels of performance have different degrees of relevance to different people. I could fit a £20 mm cartridge to my arm. It would doubtless play the records well enough for 99% of people. Is an SPU, a Denon, a Shelter or an Io worth hundreds or thousands of pounds more? It depends on the priorities of the end user. Personally I wouldn't pay more than £15 for a watch. All it has to do is tell me the time. Some people will pay thousands for a watch. Are they mad? No, but they have different priorities to me. Ditto cars. I'd like a Bentley but wouldn't pay £100K+ for one. If I won £20m on the lottery (I'd have to start buying tickets first!) then I might consider it. The point is that performance per pound means different things to different people and no two people's priorities and values are the same.

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Not a 12", but a 10.5 available here:

http://www.puremusicgroup.com/cart/i...d&productId=53

for a very reasonable $400 U.S. ballpark price. Seems like a steal.

I was about to spring for one for my Gyrodec until I discovered it will only take a 9" arm and am now seriously considering the 750D. Does anyone know anything about the bearings on the 750D. Are they upgraded over the 250S and 250 ST? I'm assuming they would be based on the price difference. Perhaps someone can shed some light on what the actual differences are with respect to the 250S and the 750D beyond the fluid damping capability of the 750?

I've tried to download the review of the 750D but for some reason can't do it and they're still selling the December issue of HFW here in Canada so it may be months before I can read it!

Also, any thoughts from anyone on using a heavier aftermarket headshell than the stock Jelco and if the standard counterweight that comes with the 750 would be capable of balancing out a heavy cartridge (an 11 gram 103R in a wood body) with a heavier headshell?

Hi Blake,

Welcome to AOS! I can answer all these questions - just off to bed now so I'll come back to you tomorrow :)

Marco.

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Originally Posted by MartinT

Conversely, the SME III had such a poor reputation yet I got good sound from it mounted on a Strathclyde STD-305M running a Dynavector 20A cartridge. Not the last word in dynamics, but smooth and very listenable.

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From what I can gather, the III's poor reputation was largely a result of bad timing. When SME were designing it, high compliance MM cartridges were very much in vogue and it was designed for such cartridges. Unfortunately for the III , by the time it was released, MC cartridges were very much taking over with their potential customers and it's performance was not as good with low compliance cartridges.

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Originally Posted by pure sound

I put an Ittok on a Voyd once, ....for about 5 minutes. It was all midrange, indeed flicking the tube told you exactly what it sounded like. I can see why, in combination with the overly warm LP12 & their fizzy cartridges it was a combination that worked albeit without much dynamic range. However, it was like a fish on a bicycle on any kind of neutral platform.

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Doug Dunlop used to describe the linn as tizzy bom bom,bless him.

Guy' what do you think was the best arm match for the voyd, John still has the Helius orion with the IO ,i think this was a better combo than my SME310/Music maker.