Evaluating And Considering Revamping My Analog. Thoughts and Insights Sought

[Mister Pig]

A couple of days ago I let my recently acquired Triplanar VII U2 go. I have been thinking about my current collection of analog bits and pieces and have been trying to decide on how I want to move forward. First table is a SOTA Cosmos Eclipse with a SME V of unknown age on it. The second table is a Scheu Audio Das Laufwerk No2 on it with a Schroder CB-1L arm. There is a provision for a second arm and I do have a Dynavector DV505 I will put back in place. The removable headshell lets me play with cartridges a bit, and I find that a desirable option.



I would tend to think the SOTA is the superior table, but so far the differences between it and the Scheu are minimal. The question I have been considering "Is this related to the SME V?" What will it take to improve upon it, and are the differences significant?

I guess the final question is does it make sense to liquidate most items and pare this down to one turntable? At what level is there meaningful improvements over the SOTA? If so, is the Schroder competent enough to be carried over.

If I did replace the SME V on the SOTA, I do have a line on a Graham Phantom II that is an option. The layout of the SOTA armboard limits things to a 10 inch arm or shorter, and weighing less than 2.2 pounds.



Cartridges I have available are an Ortofon Verismo, Transfiguration Audio Proteus, Ortofon MC2000, Kiseki Blackheart (1st generation), and Audio Tekne MC-6310. If I pared things down to one table it might limit me on what cartridges can be used.

Thoughts and considerations are welcome. Right now the thought is do I obtain the Graham and put it on the SOTA or do I revamp the whole set up?

 

[mtemur]

IMHO Sota is a very good table I like it but it’s not in the league of SME V. The problem with SME V is it’s cheap price. SME couldn’t increase the price as high as the industry did over the years and pulled it from the market. Both technically and sonically SME V is among the best tonearms around. Unfortunately that is only true when you replace inner cable with Kondo silver wire. The limiting factor of SME V is awful sounding vdH silver inner cable and hybrid tonearm cable. I recommend you to keep the tonearm and replace the table. Only when you have top tables like AF1P or equivalent you can think that SME V is not good enough. Graham, Triplanar or Dynavector are not solid sounding arms as SME V does.

Btw I prefer Sota over Scheu.

 

[Mister Pig]

IMHO Sota is a very good table I like it but it’s not in the league of SME V. The problem with SME V is it’s cheap price. SME couldn’t increase the price as high as the industry did over the years and pulled it from the market. Both technically and sonically SME V is among the best tonearms around. Unfortunately that is only true when you replace inner cable with Kondo silver wire. The limiting factor of SME V is awful sounding vdH silver inner cable and hybrid tonearm cable. I recommend you to keep the tonearm and replace the table. Only when you have top tables like AF1P or equivalent you can think that SME V is not good enough. Graham, Triplanar or Dynavector are not solid sounding arms as SME V does.

Btw I prefer Sota over Scheu.

Could you give a recommendation of technicians/shops who would do this upgrade to the SME V? In North America the only one I know of is Alfred at SME3009tonearms. Kind of a polarizing fellow, and his work involves upgrading bearings and breaking the arm down for a restoration. Perhaps not a bad idea with an older V like mine, but not sure if its the best path.

 

[mtemur]

Could you give a recommendation of technicians/shops who would do this upgrade to the SME V? In North America the only one I know of is Alfred at SME3009tonearms. Kind of a polarizing fellow, and his work involves upgrading bearings and breaking the arm down for a restoration. Perhaps not a bad idea with an older V like mine, but not sure if its the best path.

I’m sorry I don’t know any technican in North America. I replaced inner wires inside of my two SME Vs by myself. It is not very hard if you don’t have two left hands. Removing rear weight and it’s assembly is enough other than two connectors at the ends. I don’t think bearings need replacing or upgrading if not damaged.

 

[Mister Pig]

Well shipping out of country is not a problem. I would think most of the shops who do this would be in Europe verses the US.Any suggestions are certainly welcome.

 

[dennis h]

A

Could you give a recommendation of technicians/shops who would do this upgrade to the SME V? In North America the only one I know of is Alfred at SME3009tonearms. Kind of a polarizing fellow, and his work involves upgrading bearings and breaking the arm down for a restoration. Perhaps not a bad idea with an older V like mine, but not sure if its the best path.

Alfred is known to do wire only on other tonearms, I would call him and see if he will do whatever it is you want.

 

[mtemur]

Well shipping out of country is not a problem. I would think most of the shops who do this would be in Europe verses the US.Any suggestions are certainly welcome.

Rewiring SME V:

2 meters of Kondo silver wire is more than enough. KSL varnish ensures insulation.


Old vdH silver wire (colored ones) can be pulled from the front together with headshell wires. With help of a nylon thread connected to the end of old wires the new ones (already installed ) can be pulled from the front.


Final thing is to solder wires to front and rear connectors.

 

[Salectric]

I haven’t heard Kondo tonearm wire but I am familiar with Audio Note UK silver litz tonearm wire and it sounds very good indeed. However the conductors are very fine and difficult to work with. A company called 1877Phono makes copper and silver litz tonearm wires, and they are easier to install since all of the conductors are braided together as opposed to being entirely separate leads. I tried the 1877Phono copper litz in my Siggwan arm, but not the silver. The copper litz sounded better than the Cardas wiring that was in the Siggwan initially. Nevertheless, I eventually replaced it with a hybrid cable that used Discovery copper tonearm wire inside the arm and Discovery Plus 4 interconnect cable outside the arm. The Discovery cable sounded even better than the 1877Phono.

Joe at Discovery was adamant that a hybrid cable like the one he made for me sounds better than single conductors running from the cartridge clips to the RCA jacks. Based on my limited experience, I think he may be right.

 

[mtemur]

Joe at Discovery was adamant that a hybrid cable like the one he made for me sounds better than single conductors running from the cartridge clips to the RCA jacks. Based on my limited experience, I think he may be right.

He is right. A dedicated tonearm cable (DIN to RCA) is better than a thin wire running outside of the tonearm. That's what I have been advocating for years. YMMV.

A company called 1877Phono makes copper and silver litz tonearm wires, and they are easier to install since all of the conductors are braided together as opposed to being entirely separate leads.

It is better to run inner cables inside the tonearm separately rather than braided. This way you can carefully dress them and eventually prevent any resistance on the bearings. When 4 cables are braided together it is hard to eliminate resistance on the bearings. Not impossible but very hard.

 

[Mister Pig]

Interesting insights. I certainly appreciate them! Does Discovery perform the rewire? Now my arm is a 57xxxx serial number which puts it in the mid 1990s. Have there been bearing upgrades between mine and the newer generation arms?

 

[Salectric]

You would have to ask Discovery if they will do the rewiring. I have no idea. I just bought the wire harness from Discovery and did my own rewiring.

 

[mtemur]

Interesting insights. I certainly appreciate them! Does Discovery perform the rewire? Now my arm is a 57xxxx serial number which puts it in the mid 1990s. Have there been bearing upgrades between mine and the newer generation arms?

I have two SME Vs. One from 1988 other from 2015. I rewired them both and the only difference I noticed was, the old one has teflon sleeved inner wires while the new one color varnished. Bearings or other things doesn’t seem changed. Everything up to the finest detail looks the same. Old one is 9” and the new one is 12” but I always feel like the old one sounds better.