SME 3009: understanding the longitudinal and lateral balances.

[F575M]

It has been years since I set up a tonearm even though I had more than fifteen of them.

I have just installed, not set-up, my rewired 3009 unimproved. Reading the owners manual I have trouble understanding the longitudinal and lateral balances.

I'm attaching the page from the manual as well as photos. I do not understand the second paragraph of the longitudinal balance and the whole point of the lateral balance.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

[Old Cockerney]

For instructions to set the balance you need to read p.12,13 of the manual:

https://sme.co.uk/audio/wp-content/u...CTION_BOOK.pdf

[Barry]

Horatio's arm is the earlier non-improved version. The design of the counterweight and VTF adjustment is slightly different to those of the improved version.

The adjustment of the lateral balance, so as to equalise the downward force on the two knife edge bearings is essentially the same. For explicit instructions see:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0By6...VZcExMQTQ/view

[Old Cockerney]

Gosh those instructions about setting the lateral balance take me back 50 years to when I had a 3009 ( with Thorens TD124 and Shure V15 II). I had completely forgotten about using a screwdriver to lift the arm to check that the load on the knife edge bearings was distributed equally .

Thanks for the memory.

[Jac Hawk]

It's quite easy to set, once you have the arm balanced for the cartridge but before you apply tracking load, you lift the back of the turntable up and rest it on a few thick books ideally you want it about 20 degrees, what you'll find is the arm will move either to the left or right, if it moves to the right for instance you would pull the small weight out a bit so it is further away from the main balancing weight, what you're looking for is the arm to hang straight down and when you move it left or right it returns to the centre, bingo you're arm's balanced and you can now remove the books and set the tracking weight.

[F575M]

My wayrod has no rear markings [8-6-4-2] and 8 tracking force markings whereas the improved version has only 6.

In the S2 improved there is a series of marks on the wayrod where it moves into or out of the black holder, the markings correspond to the weight of a cartridge, so far so good. And now, if I were to use the 8 [Denon DL-103R] when I set up the lateral balance I may have to move the wayrod in or out to, let's say #6, then there is a controversy. I would be using an 8gr cartridge and the 6gr setting. Hope I am not mumble jumbling.

Cheers,

[Jac Hawk]

Follow the steps i've detailed above and use a digital scales to set your tracking force rather than the markings on the arm as they usually aren't accurate enough

[Barry]

Or even better, read SME's instructions to set up your arm: the SME 3009/S2 (non-improved). The wayrod of your arm does not have markings for cartridge weight on the transverse part.

Print off the link below for SME's instructions:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0By6...VZcExMQTQ/view