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

 

Thank you, Tang.

 

Tang,
You write that David turned the subs off.....I thought that the subs were mandatory for your speaker to get full range sound. Can you elaborate?

 

David is highly detailed and not in a rush to get things setup and optimized. The SME is truly a special arm....the bayonet mount system offers so much cart flexibility...both modern and vintage. The 3012R is just a pipeline that let’s all the music flow unabated. How do you like David’s alignment gauge for SME ? I love it. Makes alignment fast with no possible injury to cart during the alignment process.

Tang mounted a new SME on his table and set it up pefecrtly from scratch in one go using the gauges, took him about half an hour! He’s spot on with the VTA too!

david

 

Congratulations Tang. Now that you have multiple 3012Rs with different cartridges, will you be treating us to some more videos of the same song played with different cartridges? You must be having a blast.

 

Yikes, the 3012r killed the bavarian... cheers David!!

 

David is highly detailed and not in a rush to get things setup and optimized. The SME is truly a special arm....the bayonet mount system offers so much cart flexibility...both modern and vintage. The 3012R is just a pipeline that let’s all the music flow unabated. How do you like David’s alignment gauge for SME ? I love it. Makes alignment fast with no possible injury to cart during the alignment process.

Hi Christian,

That alignment apparatus is so good for people with lowest cartridge setting skill and clumsy like me. I also like the card trick in adjusting the VTA that you are probably using too now. This 3012R is much more simple in adjusting than SAT. David has first hand experience on setting up SAT now so he knows how it is comparing to SME. You said David is not in rush to get things optimized. I would say the total distance he walked back and forth from tt to listening seat was probably about one kilometer for one cart setup. Just the vta alone we did no less than a dozen times on the AtlasSL. A total learning experience for me. I see you are enjoying many vintage carts now. With so many setups you are now probably very proficient with it by now. For me, I am still clumsy as was..only now knows simple protocol how to get the SME and cart to sing. Just putting the anti skate nylon string through tiny roller took me 10 minutes. David looked at me in pity ..probably wanted to smack my head why I was taking so long..hahaha.

Tang

 

Hi Christian,

That alignment apparatus is so good for people with lowest cartridge setting skill and clumsy like me. I also like the card trick in adjusting the VTA that you are probably using too now. This 3012R is much more simple in adjusting than SAT. David has first hand experience on setting up SAT now so he knows how it is comparing to SME. You said David is not in rush to get things optimized. I would say the total distance he walked back and forth from tt to listening seat was probably about one kilometer for one cart setup. Just the vta alone we did no less than a dozen times on the AtlasSL. A total learning experience for me. I see you are enjoying many vintage carts now. With so many setups you are now probably very proficient with it by now. For me, I am still clumsy as was..only now knows simple protocol how to get the SME and cart to sing. Just putting the anti skate nylon string through tiny roller took me 10 minutes. David looked at me in pity ..probably wanted to smack my head why I was taking so long..hahaha.

Tang

Please don’t leave out that you started nailing the VTA in minutes after a little surgery to your system ! Don’t believe him, Tang’s already a setup pro!

david

 

Tang,
You write that David turned the subs off.....I thought that the subs were mandatory for your speaker to get full range sound. Can you elaborate?

The bass horns (what you say subs) is part of the system yes. I had problem before why they work so little. I could only hear very little bass sound coming out of these back loaded horns. If anyone looked at the bass drivers, there were almost no movement from them. Ralph of Cessaro told me they supposed to work like that. But stupid me thought that bass should be majestic, heavy with more punches. I asked him to tune it to put out more bass. It was something that wasn’t needed at the first place. My subs with more bass actually smeared the mids. It wasn’t the right balance. David is a bass guy...a bass freak actually. Good bass though. Not the woofer throwing type you see from most subs. He listened and turned off my subs. And said this is the kind of bass I should have....”natural”. Now Images and nuances are drastically improved. I used to play with this and knew this too, but I didn’t know this is the more realistic bass. He said I have enough good bass without the subs. But his bass from his system with Lamm has more details he said. When we tuned the carts, he made me listened to one part of songs with drum going and to get that drum sound as hollow to a certain point. I must have listened to this part 60-70 times by now. So this is the story with my bass. No problem with my bass he said...no subs needed.

I guess he goes around people’s house takeing off subs. He told Steve to loose the subs too I believe.

Kind regards,
Tang

 

The bass horns (what you say subs) is part of the system yes. I had problem before why they work so little. I could only hear very little bass sound coming out of these back loaded horns. If anyone looked at the bass drivers, there were almost no movement from them. Ralph of Cessaro told me they supposed to work like that. But stupid me thought that bass should be majestic, heavy with more punches. I asked him to tune it to put out more bass. It was something that wasn’t needed at the first place. My subs with more bass actually smeared the mids. It wasn’t the right balance. David is a bass guy...a bass freak actually. Good bass though. Not the woofer throwing type you see from most subs. He listened and turned off my subs. And said this is the kind of bass I should have....”natural”. Now Images and nuances are drastically improved. I used to play with this and knew this too, but I didn’t know this is the more realistic bass. He said I have enough good bass without the subs. But his bass from his system with Lamm has more details he said. When we tuned the carts, he made me listened to one part of songs with drum going and to get that drum sound as hollow to a certain point. I must have listened to this part 60-70 times by now. So this is the story with my bass. No problem with my bass he said...no subs needed.

I guess he goes around people’s house takeing off subs. He told Steve to loose the subs too I believe.

Kind regards,
Tang

Your case is most likely temporary, we’ll work on your subs next. Your speakers are full range so we have to take care of the setup properly.

david

 

Your case is most likely temporary, we’ll work on your subs next. Your speakers are full range so we have to take care of the setup properly.

david

My Commander-in-Chief (wife ) is getting suspicious of me staying with you at office late not going anywhere. Is this David actually a woman?

Tang

 

My Commander-in-Chief (wife ) is getting suspicious of me staying with you at office late not going anywhere. Is this David actually a woman?

Tang

Shes not alone, all wives start to wonder during my visits!

david

 

If Chau will come to visit me in september,my wife will be more worried than yours

 

I don't like sub,
also dirty the mid bass
I had also Krell MAster Reference,incredible sub,but except with organ music,i preferred without

 

If Chau will come to visit me in september,my wife will be more worried than yours

Hahaha

 

(...) Just putting the anti skate nylon string through tiny roller took me 10 minutes. (...)

Next time you should cheat on it. Get some multi strand electrical copper wire, take out 5 cm insulation and a get a single thin wire. Pass it through the nylon loop, bent it at the middle and use it as a guide to go through the tiny roller. Three minutes for all of it, including the time the time to fetch the wire stripper!

 

Next time you should cheat on it. Get some multi strand electrical copper wire, take out 5 cm insulation and a get a single thin wire. Pass it through the nylon loop, bent it at the middle and use it as a guide to go through the tiny roller. Three minutes for all of it, including the time the time to fetch the wire stripper!

Now people know I have different iq level from you Micro.
Hope Christian doesn’t tell me another easier way to do. Then I will feel even lesser.

Tang

 

This picture makes me looks like a Pro...until you read what I wrote.



Tang

 

Now people know I have different iq level from you Micro.
Hope Christian doesn’t tell me another easier way to do. Then I will feel even lesser.

Tang

Tang,

I did not tell you how long I tried pushing the damned string before figuring a way to do it ...

What worried me mostly it that thirty years ago, when I had better close sight, I could do it easily on my SME3009 without any tricks ...

BTW, do you use the SME standard geometry, as specified in the manual? Did you use the shown protactor on the SME 3012r?

 

Tang,
your arm board level is not very good,
you have to buy one like this
You have all the top,also arm board level has to be top
I am jocking
Ciao
Gian

 

Hi Tango...always fascinated to read your posts......great insight from a person with similar tastes and equip.....
Quick question.......what is the card trick you prefer to...many thanks