SME V12 Bridge Removal

Zeotrope

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Feb 11, 2021
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Who has removed the bridge from their SME V12 tonearm?
I was told by several people that it sounds better with the bridge removed, as it’s just decorative, so that’s what I did. But I never compared the sound with it on vs off…
 

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spiritofmusic

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Jun 13, 2013
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I did remove the bridge from my 9" V back in the dim and distant late 00s. I wish I could report a dramatic improvement, but it was minimal at most.
 
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spiritofmusic

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Jun 13, 2013
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Well, my system wasn't brilliantly optimised at the time, one that is more on song may show the difference more definitively. Certainly no negatives, and mild improvements.
 
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Zeotrope

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My understanding is that the bridge is aesthetic and not load bearing or structural. When I asked SME about it directly, they didn’t confirm or deny this — they didn’t say explicitly not to remove it, but they did say they recommend leaving it on as designed.
 

mtemur

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Mar 26, 2019
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It’s not put there for decorative reasons and certainly improves rigidity of bearing support/base. You shouldn’t remove it. It’s mounted there with a certain torque. Slight improvement you hear is not really an improvement. Loosened rigidity of the support and increased vibration cause a slight tip up of the highs which compliments as a positive to horrible roll-off VDH inner cable. The proper thing to do IOT improve SME V’s sound is getting rid of VHD cable and leaving bridge on it’s place. BTW if you want to install bridge again do not tighten the screws, just take up the slack.
 
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Zeotrope

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Feb 11, 2021
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It’s not put there for decorative reasons and certainly improves rigidity of bearing support/base. You shouldn’t remove it. It’s mounted there with a certain torque. Slight improvement you hear is not really an improvement. Loosened rigidity of the support and increased vibration cause a slight tip up of the highs which compliments as a positive to horrible roll-off VDH inner cable. The proper thing to do IOT improve SME V’s sound is getting rid of VHD cable and leaving bridge on it’s place. BTW if you want to install bridge again do not tighten the screws, just take up the slack.
Ok, thank you!
I will try with it on and compare. So just gently tighten the screws on the bridge?
 
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108CY

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May 4, 2013
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As a person who has been playing with these arms for many years the removal of the bridge makes a sizable difference the arm becomes less mechanical sounding and far more nuanced. More importantly is the tonearm cable used with the tonearm this is a far more complex subject to get into here and many would not have reached anywhere the performance capable. Removal of the small cap on the base of the arm exposing the internal wiring also alters the sound to some degree.
 
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Zeotrope

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Feb 11, 2021
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France, Canada
As a person who has been playing with these arms for many years the removal of the bridge makes a sizable difference the arm becomes less mechanical sounding and far more nuanced. More importantly is the tonearm cable used with the tonearm this is a far more complex subject to get into here and many would not have reached anywhere the performance capable. Removal of the small cap on the base of the arm exposing the internal wiring also alters the sound to some degree.
Indeed, I had mine wired with Kondo Japan (not AN) silver wire.
 

108CY

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May 4, 2013
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Indeed, I had mine wired with Kondo Japan (not AN) silver wire.

The external cable was even more important Kondo was also quite limiting, I had many different wires made up including pure gold and platinum I found using doubling up the positives always worked silver was terrible generally.
 
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