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31.1.13.66
hi,
I'm willing to upgrade my Thorens TD-320mkII with SME tonearm.
I use OC9ML/II and it suits me for a time being, generally I prefer MCs. It seems, there are two choices - 3009 improved S2 or series III.
As far as I know, both tonearms are light and prefer heavier cartridges, but series III especially loves high compliance ones. My AT has 35 static compliance, so considered high compliant and will work fine with series III, but I wonder if one day I want to try another cartridge, I'm going to have a problem with narrow choice of available cartridges. Other words, series III seems to be more advanced but less versatile, or maybe I am wrong?
Please advise.
Follow Ups:
The primary resonance will certainly affect the performance of the arm. The secondary, or bell-like resonances are higher up in frequency and can easily fall into the midrange. They can be both high Q and low Q, depending on the construction of the arm and will certainly be much greater determinants of the final sound than the low frequency resonance.
Then why all of the endless hand wringing regarding the primary arm resonance? It's easy to measure and secondary resonances are not at all easy to measure. If it measures well, and sounds bad, you're measuring the wrong thing, IMHO.
The dynamic compliance is the more relevant spec and the OC9 is more merdium compliance despite the low VTF range. You want to match it to a medium mass arm not a low mass arm - around 12g is a perfect match and puts the LF resonance around 10Hz in my system. I would be looking at a 309 or M2 or IV/V if you can stretch that far and still want to stick to SME. The LF resonance will still be in the ideal range.
Regards Anthony
"Beauty is Truth, Truth Beauty.." Keats
those are out of my budget at the moment....
if I reason correctly:
my cart has 9 x 10-6 cm/dyne at 100 Hz, resulting 15.75 x 10-6 cm/dyne at 10 Hz (multiplied times 1,75 according to several sources) and 8 g of weight
for:
3009 II (effective arm mass 12,5) I have result of 9,18 Hz
3009 II improved (6,5) - 10,97 Hz
3009 II improved S2 (9,5) - 9,96 Hz
3009 series III (5,0) - 11,39 Hz
Does it mean that option 3 - 3009 imp S2 is the best choice, wheas 3009 II is second choice? Does it matter which sign is the deviation from 10Hz?
The SME III is the best of the two. Get the black enameled carrying arm with modern Lofgren A geometry. I owned this tonearm for 20-years and I used moving coil cartridges exclusively. It is perfect for the OC9ML/II when using the 4.4-gram headshell weight along with all the counterweights installed. This configuration has 10 to 11-grams effective mass. I played the original AT-OC9 for three or four years in my SME III and the arm/cartridge resonance frequency was 10-Hz. If you can't afford one of the newer SME arms, the SME III is one of the very best and most versatile tonearms I ever owned.
Good luck,
John Elison
I had the II and the II Improved and neither behaved well with half a dozen different Moving Coils. The Knife bearings are said to be the problem.
I lived with a Series III for the time it took to leave SME once and for all, a thoroughly bad tonearm. OK perhaps with the extremely high compliance cartridges it was designed for when that was the fashion.
I lived happily ever after when I discovered the modestly priced Audio Technica AT-1005 which excelled with everything from DL-103r to Benz Ace L to ZYX R50 Bloom. Hard to find. Troll Ebay until you do.
I haven't checked the actual numbers, but your line of reasoning appears sound. I would choose any arm that gave around 10Hz as being optimal. However, anywhere in the range 10 to 12Hz could be considered ideal.
Regards Anthony
"Beauty is Truth, Truth Beauty.." Keats
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