To SME or not to SME?

I bought my Model 10 without hearing it nearly 10 years ago and never regretted a thing. I bought a Model 20 last year based on my experience with the 10 and again, no regrets. I too echo the responses of others who say 'just go for it'.

The 20 digs far deeper into the detail of the music and brings out a significant amount of information compared to the 10. Bass appears lighter at first but is far, far tighter and going back to the 10 which i moved to a second system confirms this. The 10 produces more bass but has a touch of bloat compared to the 20, not a boom or anything unpleasant but noticeably different. My 20 is a 20/2 . Arms used are a SME IV arm and an Ortofon AS212S, cartridges are Ortofon Jubilee and Candenza Black and a Phase Tech P-3 Alexandrite which really needs a heavier arm.I swapped about using all permutations until i came across what was my favourite and I've ended up with the SME IV arm with the Cadenza Black on the Model 10 and the Ortofon arm and Jubilee on the Model 20. The Jubilee is still the best cartridge i've heard with my system.

Although there's clearly an SME thing going on i feel the 20/2 to be a noticeable step up from the 10. I've not heard a 20/3 or 30 so can't compare to those.

One thing of note though is that as the 10 is an unsuspended design, it is greatly affected by what it sits on so what i'm hearing might be completely different to someone else with a different support. To hear it at its best you would probably have to put it on a stand that was completely isolated from its surroundings which might end up costing far more than the cost of upgrading to the suspended designs of the 20 and 30.