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

 

So where is the best place to find a 3012R then? Feel free to pm me if necessary! Thanks.

 

It depends on your requirements - if you feel able to check it and do not need a sealed NOS they are easily available.

 

It depends on your requirements - if you feel able to check it and do not need a sealed NOS they are easily available.

No I don’t need NOS at all. Anything in good nick would work for me. Might be time to give it a go...

 

I presume that the rubber grommets are intended to isolate the arm from vibrations within the armboard. Has anyone tried an full-sized isolation gasket instead made from Isodamp or some similar material?

Apparently these grommets were needed with old turntables, mostly idler drive, that produced a lot of vibration, and the arm was designed to use them. Although they are probably not needed in many modern turntables, taking them out will change the original sound.

As I did not want to drill the EMT927 I used some double-sided adhesive tape to glue the base to the plinth. I played with the thickness , length and width of the two lateral tape slices to get the same apparent rigidity as the grommets, but never compared them directly.

The grommets are essential and make a significant difference to the sound without them you lose the 3012-R's beautiful and natural bass which in turn effects the lower mids and mids. Without the grommets the bass tightens up and the overall sound becomes more closed in and blah. I keep repeating myself here, the 3012-R is a finished design any modification or omission will affect it's overall balance and IMO lose it's essence, you can try any of the aftermarket products you want but you'll see the same results, highlighting and tightening of bass and the overall sound. I highly recommend that both of you keep and use the 3012-R exactly the way it's designer intended it to be used and with SME OEM parts only, similar is not the same.

david

 

The grommets are essential and make a significant difference to the sound without them you lose the 3012-R's beautiful and natural bass which in turn effects the lower mids and mids. Without the grommets the bass tightens up and the overall sound becomes more closed in and blah. I keep repeating myself here, the 3012-R is a finished design any modification or omission will affect it's overall balance and IMO lose it's essence, you can try any of the aftermarket products you want but you'll see the same results, highlighting and tightening of bass and the overall sound. I highly recommend that both of you keep and use the 3012-R exactly the way it's designer intended it to be used and with SME OEM parts only, similar is not the same.

david

You can sleep in peace, I am using the SME3012R in the AF1P as the designer intended - with SME supplied grommets.

 

You can sleep in peace, I am using the SME3012R in the AF1P as the designer intended - with SME supplied grommets.

I plan to do the same. I presume the grommets are meant to isolate the arm from vibrations in the arm board but I never got confirmation about that. The rubber must filter out some frequencies but not other frequencies. If the arm for itself is isolated I presume there would not be much sonic difference but I really don’t know. I will use my 3012R as originally intended.

 

I have found the torque applied also affects the sound of the arm. I had tightened the base too much and compressed the grommets too much. It is all stated in the manual.

 

Are the RCA sockets grounds isolated from eachother on the bottom? Is the piece they're mounted to plastic of metal?

 

howiebrou

Do you know this site (Hifishark) ?

https://www.hifishark.com/search?q=sme+3012r

there are some listed but none comes cheap

regards
Urs

 

I know

howiebrou

Do you know this site (Hifishark) ?

https://www.hifishark.com/search?q=sme+3012r

there are some listed but none comes cheap

regards
Urs

I know it but I never know what is dodgy. Seems to be an inordinate amount of Russian origin stuff for some reason?

 

I have found a few 3012Rs now, some even locally so I think it might be worth a punt.

One quick question. I read the first 32 pages of this thread tonight(!) and am wondering about ease of set up. Tang seemed to do great under the watchful eye of Master Oogway but I haven’t set a tonearm for a while and that was an SME V. I got someone to help with my Thales Simplicity II arm, the stress and sweat was not worth it IMO. I presume this would require help too or is it even easier than a V?

 

I have found a few 3012Rs now, some even locally so I think it might be worth a punt.

One quick question. I read the first 32 pages of this thread tonight(!) and am wondering about ease of set up. Tang seemed to do great under the watchful eye of Master Oogway but I haven’t set a tonearm for a while and that was an SME V. I got someone to help with my Thales Simplicity II arm, the stress and sweat was not worth it IMO. I presume this would require help too or is it even easier than a V?

Setup is very simple and straight forward if you have the basic knowledge and skills required for any tonearm/cartridge setup. It's not much different from the V.

david

 

Setup is very simple and straight forward if you have the basic knowledge and skills required for any tonearm/cartridge setup. It's not much different from the V.

david

The only thing that needs a a firm and careful hand is VTA - the tonearm pillar of the SME 3012 does not have any scale or screw type adjustment, like the SMEV.

 

The only thing that needs a a firm and careful hand is VTA - the tonearm pillar of the SME 3012 does not have any scale or screw type adjustment, like the SMEV.

All it takes is a nice deck of cards.

 

All it takes is a nice deck of cards.

Yes, theoretically I could adjust car tire pressure using nice decks of cards ...

I own both SME's (3012R and V), IMHO the precision screw mechanism of the SMEV (or the Graham Phantom Supreme, BTW) can not be compared with the 3012R deck of cards.

My point is that the 3012R simplicity needs more control and skills of the owner during setup than the SMEV. Even for locating the tonearm with precision, the SMEV is assisted by a key and ratchet mechanism.

 

Setup is very simple and straight forward if you have the basic knowledge and skills required for any tonearm/cartridge setup. It's not much different from the V.

david

Thank you David, although I would wager that your definition of 'basic' might differ slightly from mine!

 

The only thing that needs a a firm and careful hand is VTA - the tonearm pillar of the SME 3012 does not have any scale or screw type adjustment, like the SMEV.

Yes, saw that, thanks. The pack of cards trick is ingenious.

 

Thank you David, although I would wager that your definition of 'basic' might differ slightly from mine!

Not really, I seriously meant basic knowledge. On line setup videos from the mavens are too over the top and unnecessarily complex. Tonearm setup isn't rocket science it's a simple skill and like any skill you get better at it with practice, just relax and play it will come. The difficult part is getting the VTA exact, that's where one needs the experience.

david

 

Not really, I seriously meant basic knowledge. On line setup videos from the mavens are too over the top and unnecessarily complex. Tonearm setup isn't rocket science it's a simple skill and like any skill you get better at it with practice, just relax and play it will come. The difficult part is getting the VTA exact, that's where one needs the experience.

david

Thank you for the confidence booster. Next time you're over this way visiting Tang you must stop by in Hong Kong.

 

How is the 3012 s2? There is one close by and it is very clean, is it worth going after liek the 3012R