SME 20 SME V cartridge

Give the Sound Smith a call. I have his Strain Gauge on my 20/12A and it is simply stunning. His MM cartridges are very close from what I have heard.
Congrats on the purchase. You are in for a wonderful ride!

Lyra Delos when you have a Phonostage which is able to amplify 0.6mV

It really depends on the type of sound that you are after. A warm romantic sound, then perhaps the Benz. A fast transparent silvery sound then perhaps the Dynavector. Check out the Wilson Benesch Ply or their Carbon.

Cheers
Jim

When I had an SME 20, I ran a Koetsu Rosewood for playing jazz & opera, which is mostly 1950's Blue Note & Decca pressings in my collection and a ClearAudio Discovery for the newer vinyl.
I can recommend that you give Dave a call a Heatherdale Audio in UK (01903 261213 or 01903 532085). Good guy and always willing to do deals on cartridges. I bought a couple of Yamamoto cartridges off him and IMO they are the equal of £1500.00+ cartridges that I named above.

The Sumiko Pear or Anniversary Pear were designed with the SME as their turntable for it. May make a good combo. Check out the archives on that.

Soundsreally sells what he is recommending.

When a financial interest is involved, a disclosure is needed.

William Thacker sells the Ortofon Jubilee for just under £1000 which works excellently with your SME and at that price is a bargain. You don't say though what phono stage you use. If you're mm only then forget about the Jubilee.

http://www.zum-shop.de/Ortofon-MC-Jubilee-Tonabnehmer_c32-317-319_p4506_x2.htm

I'm sure a Lyra Kleos can be had for your budget or close to it....I'm sure someone is discounting it a bit in the UK. Sings on an SME 20.

Misnomer, I think your arm will work well with most carts under 15g. This probably means you have a choice of over 100 carts in your price range. I think it would help to narrow that list down if we knew the Phono stage you are using, maybe even the rest of your system. I say this because carts sound different depending on the rest of the system, especially the Phono stage. You probably cant go wrong with any of the carts mentioned above, incl. your own suggestion. I recommend you start there and get one to audition. Maybe also not a bad idea to come up with your own top 3 or 5 carts and ask us to rate them, otherwise this thread will have 20 carts by the weekend and you'll be more confused. just my 2 cents, good to hear that London is sunny this week :-)

Dear Misnomer: That Sumiko is very good advice due that's a " matched dream " with your tonearm. The V was used for the Sumiko voicing.

Lyras performs good in the V too and other good alternative is Clearaudio Virtuoso Wood where you can save money for increment LPs in your collection.

Regards and enjoy the music,
R.

I have an SME 10 with SME V arm. I used to have the Sumiko Celebration (Pear)
and as Raul says, it was a very nice combination with the SME V. I replaced the
Sumiko with an AirTight PC-1. The stylus is a line-contact rather than elliptical,
so it requires a bit more effort during set up, but it is worth it. It is more
refined, has more detail, is faster, and more dynamic with great tone. Better in
every way. The SME V and AirTight is an excellent combination, though this
might be a bit more than your budget.