: record. BTW cart is
: : a Shure V15V.
: :
: : **Nice cartridge. It deserves a better arm than the
SME.
: Having said that,
: : damping the V15V is not really necessary. The damping
: system is there to
: : counteract the crappy bearings of the SME, when used
with
: MC carts. These
: : comments do not apply to the SME V, which is a
stunning
: tone arm.
: :


Surprised to hear of poor engineering by SME; I thought that was what they
were good at.

I vaguely remember the fall of the SME 3009 as being non-compatible with MC
cartridges - mass compliance. or something like that?

The standard for years was the Shure/SME combination, often on a Garrard 401
or 402. Then along came the comics, and Linn/Grace/Supex.

I currently have - and have done for ten years or so - a sort of SME
four-and-half, i.e. a 4 (chosen simply because it looked better on my
Gyrodeck, and I wasn't sure if my ears could notice the difference from its
big brother) which was completely rebuilt by SME to 5 standard. If anyone's
interested, the cartridge is a Transfiguration - are they still around?

Still listening to music, not hi-fi.

Geoff MacK