SME 309 or SME 3009r?

Dover, thanks for taking the time and effort to offer an informed and well-measured opinion. 

based on reading some specificatons

The 3009r is well respected compared to many of the 3009 versions that followed.  The larger version (3012r) is employed on some of the top TT setups in the world.  You may want to explore this on the What’s Best forum. 

I know all too well. I also owned one for four years. It‘s beautifully constructed and offers very high perceived value for money. It tracks exceedingly well and allows easy adjustment. Tonally it is fine. But where it falls in a screaming heap is in PRAT.

It is absolutely hopeless with music that is rhythmically based and is dynamically constrained. Once you listened to something like an Ittok you simply couldn‘t go back. For me it renders music in a boring, lifeless fashion that I could never go back to, and represents the antithesis of what I look for in music. In the 80’s it was not held in very high esteem. Just because a forum today says something is good doesn‘t mean I have to take their opinion seriously. Sometimes old things become fashionable…