Sme 3012 R

I know this old arm is good but I don’t know why David,Rockitman,Tang,Ron,Mike
Use or will use having top tonearm like Sat,EliteAxiom,Black Beauty,Durand

Why 3012 is so special?
I never had and I don’t understand
Only to know for my curiosity
Regards
Gian

 

@mtemur , @PeterA

This reads like an interesting arm-chair theoretical vs hands-on experienced discussion. Thank you Peter for the excellent photography.

Lots of ways to skin a catfish.
I like the relative ease of use and safety factors of DDK's jig used with the 3012R. For me the results I get tell the tale.

I am glad you like the photographs, Tim. They do tell the story, as do the listening results.

From our WBF co-owner Ron Resnick:

"I have said many, many times that I consider to be David a extremely talented and experienced turntable designer and vinyl playback expert. I have said many times that I consider him to be literally the world's leading expert on the SME 3012R tone arm. David is a fantastic and world class analogue playback set up expert."

David Karmeli, DDK, does indeed know a lot about the SME 3012R tonearm and how to set it up. He is an expert in this area. This is the jig and protractor that he sent me after I bought two New Old Stock 3012R arms from him. He taught me how to use the devices when I visited him. I now have three of these arms on my turntable and can attest to the quality of this jig and protractor.

 

I must dig out the jig, have it in a drawer together with a extra headshell and protractor David sent me, never learned to use it. Protractor did not work for me because my LT arm with silicone trough takes up to much space, the SME cardboard one that came with the arm works fine for my needs, i rarely change cartridges.

 

The black ring around the spindle hole makes it look like there is a slop, but I assure you there is none.



Yes, there’s a portion of the hedgehog that is flat, but it sits so far above the surface of the protractor that is not that easy to align. The jig is much more accurate for this.



I can see this as a concern, but there was always a risk handling a cartridge. I am much more nervous with the cartridge attached to the tone arm when doing alignment. This is why using this jig is so safe.



How would you recommend aligning a cartridge where you can barely see the cantilever or stylus because it’s not exposed like the Colibrí and some others? An SPU is quite difficult, and the Neumann was near impossible without the jig. Even my Airtight was difficult on the MINT protractor to get a loop close enough to see if the stylist was on the line.

You can try aligning “ hidden “ cantilever using short focal length monocular . Can even see stylus clearly

 

You can try aligning “ hidden “ cantilever using short focal length monocular . Can even see stylus clearly

Great idea. Does it work on a Neumann? At that angle, can you see the stylus hitting the null point? I would think it is hard to see the markings on the protractor.

 

eye balling stylus to position it a the centre of the fairly big dot is highly inaccurate as far as I know & the monocular can clearly see the tip of the stylus . Use DDK gauge , counter check with the monocular, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s not centred at all. I used to set up using original SME 3012R protractor& eyeball it with a handheld scope 10x. I thought it was perfect centre until I used a short focal length monocular to counter check . Try it out .

 

Don’t have Neumann but I don’t see why not. If handheld scope can be used to set up Neumann, short focal length monocular . Google specwell monocular 10x20 with a diopter to allow monocular to focus at a shorter distance

 

U can actually place the scope a few inches away if there is no hindrance in placing the camera stand where the monocular is attached . At least 20x magnification. Few hundreds usd . Worth trying

 

Drill a hole in the protractor with the smallest possible drillbit set diamond there.
Mostly start sets at 0.6mm

For the angle, the only thing that helps is to rely on the housing or headshell edge for a right angle. To extend the housing edges, attach pencil leads with scotch tape. The longer the lead, the more accurate the angle. Thats my way to install e.g decca or ikeda