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

 

About 3 more weeks Shane.
david

Thanks David, we can continue this on PM.

You mean Christmas..heheeheee.

Tang

LOL. You probably already have one Tang If not, back of the line for you

 

LOL. You probably already have one Tang If not, back of the line for you

For $100 a day, I can have a tonearm guy with eagle eyes, surgeon hand finger delicacy do the initial setup for me Shane. I have a bad back and very long eyesight. Tuning is ok with my bad physique. Initial setup is a no no.

Tang

 

For $100 a day, I can have a tonearm guy with eagle eyes, surgeon hand finger delicacy do the initial setup for me Shane. I have a bad back and very long eyesight. Tuning is ok with my bad physique. Initial setup is a no no.

Tang

Hey Tang.

You need to buy Damien Rice - O . first time on vinyl, 2018 release of the 2002 album. absolutely wonderful. You will like and will sound wonderful on your system.

https://www.discogs.com/Damien-Rice-O/release/11293982

 

Just bought Shane. Thank you.

Tang

 

Once he has the ddk jig, his 3012R alignment challenges will be over.

Effective length, that is pivot to stylus distance, varies with different mounting hole to stylus dimensions. How does David’s jig allow you to avoid adjusting overhang for optimal alignment? Perhaps I don’t understand what the jig does.

 

Effective length, that is pivot to stylus distance, varies with different mounting hole to stylus dimensions. How does David’s jig allow you to avoid adjusting overhang for optimal alignment? Perhaps I don’t understand what the jig does.

The DB Systems protractor (purchased on DDK's recommendation) is the only commercial protractor I've found that works with the SME sliding base. It has two plates and you rotate them to align the headshell. It's very similar to the paper jig the SME arms come with, only it's more accurate. Most people just use the paper jig that the arm comes with.

 

Ian, you may still need to adjust overhang for proper alignment if the cartridge mounting hole to stylus distance varies with your three cartridges. Arm height and VTF may also need to be adjusted, so it may not be a simple swapping of head shells. Then there is cartridge loading to consider too.

Do you think you may switch arms back and forth by simply swapping armboards?

I don't know if I will need to adjust overhang between the Atlas and Opus1 since they were exactly the same on my Black Beauty (which also is a fixed headshell - more or less).

I will absolutely have to change VTF!

If I switch arms, I will absolutely swap armboards. Would I do this as a way of changing cartridges? Not sure. I was originally thinking that I would use the 3012R for the Atlas (so I could have precise VTF) and the Opus1 on the Black Beauty (which it works very well with) but I will have to try my Opus1 on the 3012R and see how it sounds.

I'm still getting used to the 3012R's operational mechanics (the arm rest lock is a little strange and the arm feels so flimsy) as well as the sonics. I looked into my bag of tricks and found an SME phono cable (can't recall why I ever bought that but I did) and no longer have a cable issue per se. I feel like I'm hearing a little bit of a metallic signature that is probably the cable, but overall I'm digging the sound very much. I'm probably hearing my Atlas more accurately than with the Black Beauty (given the VTF issue I had) so some of what I'm noticing might be that. The sound is VERY clean and clear though; piccolos and other high frequency instruments are coming through nicely, bass is clean with good punch and transients are super. Piano is fantastic.

Best $2k I've ever spent me thinks.

I did buy a couple other phono cables to try (including the one rockitman recommended) and am looking forward to comparing. Also looking forward to trying the Opus1 and getting my dB Systems protractor to fine tune.

The one thing that you can't do easily at all with this arm is adjust arm height. That is a major PITA. You would hate this arm Peter since you couldn't adjust for LP thickness.

Otherwise the design is very interesting. It has a nice mechanism for adjusting course VTF, but by comparison the fine VTF is a bit frustrating - but overall WAY less frustrating than my Black Beauty and seems to sound as good. It might even be better but it's hard to know since prior to this past Monday I've only listened to the Etna (which I've now given back to the person who loaned it to me). While I did put my Atlas on the Black Beauty for a couple days before switching over to the SME, I did not have the VTF dialed in properly so in some ways I'm hearing two changes at once (Atlas + SME).

 

Effective length, that is pivot to stylus distance, varies with different mounting hole to stylus dimensions. How does David’s jig allow you to avoid adjusting overhang for optimal alignment? Perhaps I don’t understand what the jig does.

It's not a jig per se Peter, it's a headshell with a scale. You mount the cartridge in your headshell then measure the distance from the back of the headshell to the stylus tip with my headshell gauge then mount it on the arm like a heashell. There's a scale and you use your measurement, ie 49/50/51mm etc. for your alignment. The advantage is that you're not risking your cartridge, have an accurate scale with a large window and perfect outside lines of the frame to easily align the tonearm with the protractor; no more guesswork and or trying to figure things out with odd shaped cartridges. In the set there will be a similar gauge for fixed headshell tonearms too.

david

 

It's not a jig per se Peter, it's a headshell with a scale. You mount the cartridge in your headshell then measure the distance from the back of the headshell to the stylus tip with my headshell gauge then mount it on the arm like a heashell. There's a scale and you use your measurement, ie 49/50/51mm etc. for your alignment. The advantage is that you're not risking your cartridge, have an accurate scale with a large window and perfect outside lines of the frame to easily align the tonearm with the protractor; no more guesswork and or trying to figure things out with odd shaped cartridges. In the set there will be a similar gauge for fixed headshell tonearms too.

david

Sounds very promising...!

 

The one thing that you can't do easily at all with this arm is adjust arm height. That is a major PITA. You would hate this arm Peter since you couldn't adjust for LP thickness.

You don't need to change VTA for every LP if your initial setup is correct. Use a deck of cards for VTA measurement then you can move the arm up and down very accurately and repeatedly by simply counting cards. Much more accurate than any visual gauge!

david

 

You don't need to change VTA for every LP if your initial setup is correct. Use a deck of cards for VTA measurement then you can move the arm up and down very accurately and repeatedly by simply counting cards. Much more accurate than any visual gauge!

david

Do you insert the deck at the rear?

 

Do you insert the deck at the rear?

Yes, and push the arm down on the cards for a tight fit.
david

 

Yes, and push the arm down on the cards for a tight fit.
david

Thanks, David.

 

Do you insert the deck at the rear?

Should be easy to visit Christian for a day to learn the tricks

 

It's not a jig per se Peter, it's a headshell with a scale. You mount the cartridge in your headshell then measure the distance from the back of the headshell to the stylus tip with my headshell gauge then mount it on the arm like a heashell. There's a scale and you use your measurement, ie 49/50/51mm etc. for your alignment. The advantage is that you're not risking your cartridge, have an accurate scale with a large window and perfect outside lines of the frame to easily align the tonearm with the protractor; no more guesswork and or trying to figure things out with odd shaped cartridges. In the set there will be a similar gauge for fixed headshell tonearms too.

david

I should have registered the patent ...

My crude device was inspired in an article about tracking errors - the authors measured them for different geometries using a similar tool. Thanks to it I found I could mount the SME 3012R in the EMT 927 without extra tooling!

 

Just bought Shane. Thank you.

Tang

I want to be like Tang when i grow up, so i got it to ! Have it on CD, so never listen to it anymore.

 

Is this the cable u guys are looking for? I've had this from a long forgotten SME arm, maybe 1980..

 

I should have registered the patent ...

My crude device was inspired in an article about tracking errors - the authors measured them for different geometries using a similar tool. Thanks to it I found I could mount the SME 3012R in the EMT 927 without extra tooling!

Records were the dominant media for over 50 years Francisco every gadget one can think of has been made at some point including my gauges. What you see today including the Smartractor and Feickert are reissues of older designs with small improvements. The gauge set I'm making is no different it's based on ones I used and seen before, just try to make them more complete. Also they're not made anymore otherwise I wouldn't bother with the manufacturing headache.

david

 

Is this the cable u guys are looking for? I've had this from a long forgotten SME arm, maybe 1980..

View attachment 43472
View attachment 43473

Yes, wanna sell?

david

 

Is this the cable u guys are looking for? I've had this from a long forgotten SME arm, maybe 1980..

View attachment 43472
View attachment 43473

Bingo ! That’s it.
After you get it David, you can sell it to me !