OL Silver vs SME 309

Jyprez,

You are going on the premise that if it looks cheap, it must sound cheap!!

I'm sure that you have past experiences to back up this reaction. I'm also sure that many of today's audio gear warrant this reaction! However, in this not the case for the OL Silver. I say this as an owner of this tonearm. I would have preferred to have paid much less for this tonearm since it looks so pedestrian but sound-wise, it is definitely worth the cost.

I've compared it directly to my previous MMF5 tonearm, which I agree is not much of a tonearm. I've also compared it to a OL OL1 (the modified RB250) but this was in a diff. system. No comparison though - OL Silver was much better. Agree, this comparison might not carry as much weight as one wherein both tonearms were compared in the same system.

You know, sometimes less is better. There is not much to tweak in a tonearm if it is correctly designed. The OL Silver has 2 bearings in its yoke hence azimuth is correct by design. No need for that adjustment. The cart. slots are long & wide enough to accomodate virtually any cart. + allow slight modification of offset angle by twisting the cart. in the headshell. Only VTA is rather clumsy but then this is a Rega trademark! If you buy a Rega arm, you KNOW this apriori.

That aluminum tonearm tube looks plain but it takes some work to machine it correctly for good sound. Internally it is damped. Headshell is also carefully machined with all those holes in it to make it rigid.

The trick lies in its simplicity. You have all the adjustments that you REALLY need & none that you DON'T need! All those adjustment dials in the SME or Graham are great to look at but they have given you enough rope to hang yourself!

IMHO, it would be foolish of you to discard the OL Silver based solely on looks. HEAR it, it'll positively surprise you! You might not still like it but at that point it won't be for looks.

Hi,

At the risk of further exposing my ignorance on this site, compared w/ the experience of others above, and given that no one else has, I will offer (somewhat of) a defense of the SME, simply because I owned a Gyro SE/SME 309 combo for nearly a year. During the time I had the SME arm, I had a Clearaudio Virtuoso, VDH MC10 (old version) and Golding Elite, along w/ a budget Grado. I have read about, but never seen in person, heard or otherwise personally experienced any of the Origin Live products. The SME and VHD on the Michell at times sounded very realistic, particularly w/ some blues and jazz LPS. I am tempted to say that, together with the rest of the system, it provided some of the best reproduced sound I have heard at times, but given the short-comings of aural memory, that is a hard statement to back up. Nevertheless, on blues, jazz and other "ligher" acoustical music, there was a clear synergy going on w/ the three. (I have heard that Michell uses SME and VHD for testing inhouse, which would explain why the Michell might be voiced to maximize the potential of these components.) However, the Michell/SME/VDH simply didn't "rock" or "boogie" with a lot of rock/pop music. In addition, the combo had a higher noise floor than I would have preferred w/ classical music, even compared w/ a Planar 25. Part of the problem, I think, was my constant experimenting w/ set-up, together w/ the lack of appropriate shelving, and the give in my suspended wooden floors that caused the Gyro's suspension to be almost constantly moving. Also, this was the older version of the VDH; the newer ones are supposed to be better.
The Clearaudio cartridge had been impressive on the stock RB250 arm I had before the SME, but for some reason didn't match well w/ the SME. On paper, it should have worked, but didn't. The Goldring was ok, and the Grado was, well an inexpensive Grado, with a nice warm, natural but dark tone, not as resolving of details.
As with you, I have considered OL products, and may yet get one, but I have been a little concerned that in all the reviews, while praising the sound, the review notes short-comings in the appearance/construction. If you go to the vinyl asylum, you will also see a few people reporting defects in OL arms they purchased, but I have no idea if this is a common problem. In reading SME arm reviews, whatever else they might think of the arm, no one doubts SME's construction quality and durability. Also, in reading a few of these reviews (mainly in the British press) most of the comparisons seem to be to arms they have owned or heard in the past, and not direct comparisons w/ products they have on hand. Such comparisons are inherently suspect to me. (The TNT review, however, may be an exception.) My final point about some of these reviews is that, even if they involved a direct comparision, they generally involved only one or two cartridges (maybe three) that the reviewer had on hand, and maybe one or at most two tables. A true comparision, which would be difficult, would involve living w/ both arms for a period of time and trying a wide range of cartridges on several types of tables. I suspect in such a comparision, the OL would work better w/ some set-ups, and the SME might be better with others, as my experience w/ the Clearaudio Virtuoso suggests. Neverthess, beyond suggesting there may be some synergy with the SME & VHD cartridges, I can't provide any info as to cartridges that might work well w/ the SME. However, if you know the cartridge you are going to be using, you might post a question about the OL/SME arms and that cartridge.

To qualify what I have said here even more, I should point out that I have now sold the Gyro, SME and VDH (all separately), and am now looking for a new analog set-up.

TH

Tlh28, a very fair minded and balanced report of your observations and opinions. Informative also. Thank you.

Thanks again for all your opinions pro and con. IMHO a few perspectives from actual owners of these arms is worth more than 1000 over-hyped reviews in the audio press. While I still cringe at the $800 price, it sounds like the OL silver has some strong support.
BTW my cartridge is a Shelter 501 Mk2 with a Michell oem rega 300 arm. My table is in a sunroom adjacent to the listening room . The sunroom floor is 4 inches of concrete on top of a thick styrofoam block on top of crushed stone. You can jump up and down in front of the TT and not hear a thing through the system.

Jyprez, if I'm not mistaken, every one of the people that responded to this thread that are OL owners, are using the Shelter 501 in it. It is a near perfect combination. Both are strong "overachievers" for their price ranges. It's an awesome setup.