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

 

When my house cleaners were here last Thursday I removed the headshell and hid it in a closet.

Your clumsy fingers might be more dangerous when putting the stylus guard in and out than your house cleaners Ian .

Tang

 

My vtf is at 1.8 something. My Ortofon scale is only one decimal point. You are using 1.72 right? At my current setting, I have most presence, musical connection and goose bumps. Ian I really recommend you to get Hilary Hahn Retrospective. The first disc is direct to disc. Play second side second song. You will hear such un-homogeneous clapping. The kind of claps that will give you a big smile. The violin she plays will hold your soul and move it along her bow. The GFS is not going to be able to produce this kind of violin with tonal width and spectrum, the resonance of wood together with the bow strings. Both AtlasSL and Opus 1 you have can do this beautifully. This is one of the record I used to fine tune the cart setting.

I used the small weight as Jeffrey said.

Kind regards,
Tang

Thanks, Tang. Wow, 1.8 is beyond the manufacturer's range (1.65 -> 1.73). Yes, I have mine at 1.72. When I had it on the Black Beauty it must have been much higher (there wasn't a credit card's distance throughout playback and now there is).

Thanks for the suggestion of Hilary Hahn. I was not aware of that album, I thought all her recordings were digital, but I've ordered it.

I use the small weight as well, but it's so tricky to get it to move just a very tiny bit. I guess it's just practice.

 

Your clumsy fingers might be more dangerous when putting the stylus guard in and out than your house cleaners Ian .

Tang

Yes, there is always risk when you use a stylus guard - ironic!

 

What are you using to check the azimuth?

Only a bubble level and my eye. Nothing very scientific. I couldn't even do the former on my previous arm.

 

Do you have to do it that way? It is easier to make very fine adjustments with the larger weight.

You don't have to do it that way but I believe its the best way to dial in VTF for this arm. I don't have to use a scale, the small weight is that accurate.

 

Tang, what VTF are you currently set at on your AtlasSL?

Sorry Ian. My bad. The VtF is 1.7 not 1.8. I just checked.

Kind regards,
Tang

 

Sorry Ian. My bad. The VtF is 1.7 not 1.8. I just checked.

Kind regards,
Tang

Now that sounds better

 

Now that sounds better

Hi Shane,

How is your cable cooking? I find this SME cable superb and the best thing is it came free with the arm...hehe.

Tang

 

Hi Shane,

How is your cable cooking? I find this SME cable superb and the best thing is it came free with the arm...hehe.

Tang

Nothing is ever free Tango ! In your case it was definitely part of a larger purchase, the AS2000.

 

Hi Shane,

How is your cable cooking? I find this SME cable superb and the best thing is it came free with the arm...hehe.

Tang

Hey Tang

The guy before me used the 3012-R for 5 years, so the cable is well and truly cooked me thinks. sounds fine to me

Luckily my Nordost Valhalla and Tyr cables are Din to RCA - so can't try even if I wanted to - thank god for that!!


have you compared to your other mega expensive tonearm cables?

 

I'm currently using a $95 mogami cable from a vendor on Audiogon while I wait for the cable Christian recommended. I found the SME a tad bright and brutal at times.

 

I'm currently using a $95 mogami cable from a vendor on Audiogon while I wait for the cable Christian recommended. I found the SME a tad bright and brutal at times.

That doesn’t sound like the SME cable.
david

 

I'm currently using a $95 mogami cable from a vendor on Audiogon while I wait for the cable Christian recommended. I found the SME a tad bright and brutal at times.

Was he using 2534 cable Ian ?

 

Hey Tang

The guy before me used the 3012-R for 5 years, so the cable is well and truly cooked me thinks. sounds fine to me

Luckily my Nordost Valhalla and Tyr cables are Din to RCA - so can't try even if I wanted to - thank god for that!!


have you compared to your other mega expensive tonearm cables?

I initially used Kuro proto type phono cable with the sme. Excellent sounding But the cable was too stiff and heavy, not practical, so I sent it back. I didn’t get to a/b with the sme cable. Everything was new to me so all sound was new to me. I will be lying if I say which was better. Right now I am using the sme cable and I don’t find any reason to switch to other cable. The sme cable is superb. It doesn’t enhance certain frequencies or supercharge sound. All the details and resolution are there without calling your attention. Not warm not cold. It also doesn’t influence the tone of my different carts. I don’t find the cable harsh like MadFloyd. My other arms come with integrated silver cable so I can’t seperate sound from arm and cable.

Kind regards,
Tang

 

I'm back to using the SME cable and I take back my comments on it sounding harsh.

I do have some distortion (with sibilence since using the dB systems protractor) I need to fix, but otherwise it sounds very very good.

 

I'm back to using the SME cable and I take back my comments on it sounding harsh.

I do have some distortion (with sibilence since using the dB systems protractor) I need to fix, but otherwise it sounds very very good.

I have sibilances too..varying from one cart to another. Opus the least, then AtlasSL, most with GFS. I couldn’t reduce it further by fine tuning cart setup. It could be the silver tonearm wire of SAT or the cart itself...but that’s just my speculation.

I used to have the KS Elation. I thought it was mid accentuated but could be good in your system.

Tang

 

I have sibilances too..varying from one cart to another. Opus the least, then AtlasSL, most with GFS. I couldn’t reduce it further by fine tuning cart setup. It could be the silver tonearm wire of SAT or the cart itself...but that’s just my speculation.

I used to have the KS Elation. I thought it was mid accentuated but could be good in your system.

Tang

Tang, Have you listened to both the SAT and the SME with either the Opus or the Atlas? In other words, with no other variables, have you compared the arms? Do you have a preference for a particular arm/cartridge combination?

 

Tang, Have you listened to both the SAT and the SME with either the Opus or the Atlas? In other words, with no other variables, have you compared the arms? Do you have a preference for a particular arm/cartridge combination?

Hi Peter,

I had Opus1 and GFS on both SAT and SME on AS. The Opus on SME is my best sounding combo imo. It is sounding so right I don’t dare changing or playing with the setup. It offers more tonal shading and contrast than SAT. Right now I have GFS on SAT. It is sounding great too just different flavor. Initially I had GFS on SME using Arche headshell. But back then I hadn’t learned ddk’s techniques to tune cart yet...still it was good enough for me to think its one of the top cart around. The GFS on SAT now sounds better than when it was on SME. It could have sound better or worse if on SME with optimised setting I don’t really know. I am not planning to put the GFS back on the SME any time soon since I just finished optimizing it on SAT.

The sound of GFS is like the RedSparrow with more body and better bass.

Kind regards,
Tang

 

Hi Tang,

If you are having problems with sibilance then you might want to look at VTA or cartridge alignment again as that is *usually* the culprit.

 

Hi Peter,

I had Opus1 and GFS on both SAT and SME on AS. The Opus on SME is my best sounding combo imo. It is sounding so right I don’t dare changing or playing with the setup. It offers more tonal shading and contrast than SAT. Right now I have GFS on SAT. It is sounding great too just different flavor. Initially I had GFS on SME using Arche headshell. But back then I hadn’t learned ddk’s techniques to tune cart yet...still it was good enough for me to think its one of the top cart around. The GFS on SAT now sounds better than when it was on SME. It could have sound better or worse if on SME with optimised setting I don’t really know. I am not planning to put the GFS back on the SME any time soon since I just finished optimizing it on SAT.

The sound of GFS is like the RedSparrow with more body and better bass.

Kind regards,
Tang

Thank you Tang. I'm glad that you are so happy with the Opus/SME combination. You did not mention the Atlas? Which arm do you like with the Atlas and is it just a "different flavor" from the Opus or does it have a signature that you do not like as much as the Opus? I thought I had read that you liked the Atlas around the time David came to visit.