Has anybody tried the Reed 3P?

Hi John,
No, I did not receive any forwarded email from you. Sorry. You can reach me
at xactaudio@gmail.com or 208-860-9559
Hope this is not against the rules...

After some delay, my 12" 3P is here. Mine is in the cocobolo/ruthenium finish. It's a beautiful site to behold. One of the prettiest tonearms I've ever seen. Worth the wait on that ruthenium coating.

I've only had a few mornings with the arm so far but performance looks to be on a reference level as well. Currently I have a Benz LP-s mounted and it controls the cartridge beautifully. I have a couple other high end arms that met their match with the LP-s and couldn't keep it from jumping out of the groove. No such problem here. I really don't know if the LP-s is the ideal match for this arm but it's sounding great and I can finally use this high end cartridge that previously had been set aside.

I'd love to hear impressions from others as well as preferred cartridge matches. I'm not the most apt reviewer. Suffice it to say so far I really love this arm.

Sonofjim,
I have exactly the same TT (Technics SP-10 MKII), arm (SME 312S and the cart. (Dynavector XV-1S), and am looking at Reed 3P as well.
I just bought a second TT- Verdier La Platine Granito, but haven't installed it yet.
I would love to hear your impression of Reed vs. SME
Thanks

Hi Sonofjim, Glad to see you at last got your Reed 3P. Coincidentaly I just got the Benz LP S but my objective was to substitute the Ruby 3 S in my Triplanar VII with the LP S. My Reed 2 A got the Miyabi Standard already as 'upgrade' from Phase Tech P 3 G.
I hate those carts changes and adjustments but because you are so happy with your 3P / LP S combo I will try both combinations. For those who are reluctant to mess with cart changes and adjustments such report as yours is a kind of encouragement.
Regards,

Both arms are well engineered. The 312 s is very easy to set up as I'm sure you know. The lack of a slotted head shell has it's downside too though especially if you want to use a Mint tractor which has to be cartridge specific. The lack of VTA on the fly adjustment is also a slight knock on the SME. It's performance with the PC-1 Supreme is hard to fault but it is one of the arms that had trouble with the LP-s. To be fair, I didn't add the accessory counter weight which would have allowed the counter weight assembly to be moved closer to the pivot and may have stabilized things. I knew the Reed was on the way so waited for it.

The Reed certainly wins the beauty contest.(I do like the more industrial finish of the SME too though). It handles the LP-s right out of the box. In addition to VTA on the fly, azimuth on the fly( which I haven't messed with yet) makes tweaking much easier. I'm still getting this arm dialed in but it's on par with the SME already.

The "new toy" factor is in effect currently but if I could only keep one arm it would be the 3P. I'm fortunate to have them both though and don't foresee parting with either one.