Good carts with SME V

I had a SME 10 and used a Benz Micro LPS, which sounded great with that combination. I know the arm is different, but still quite similar.

o_holter,

invictus005 is a fan of SME. I believe both tables and arms. You might ask him about alignment. I am not aware if they have easy adjustment for it. I think he would know and if not; how he accomplishes it. It is a necessary parameter.

That is sad about losing the stylus on the Atlas. Have you contacted Lyra / J Carr ?

The price of the better cartridges is just so through the roof. For the first time; I am thinking of the used / low hours route. There is a dealer that advertises here, Artisan Fidelity. Every so often, he has one of the great cartridges available for discounted prices. I would never do this through the mail; but he is just an 1hour drive away. I could hear and inspect the cartridge. He has great market feedback.

Ralph (atmasphere) modded my Technics with Triplanar. His thoughts are worth paying attention to. I am starting to agree with him on cartridges. Once you have Speed Control and a great tonearm. You will finally hear what your cartridge can really do. 

Best

Dear Ralph, Please clue me in; how do you adjust the effective mass on a Triplanar, save by the method common to any tonearm, which is to add mass? But, as for most other tonearms, you cannot reduce effective mass below the basic value with no added weight.  Yes? Thanks.

Of course, I remain a happy TP user after more than 20 years.

My friend has an Etna, which sounds very good, and says he likes it better than a wood-body Koetsu. I wonder if a Koetsu might be too smooth-sounding in my already quite tubey system.

The Koetsu Black has an aluminum body, and sounds smooth with very good dynamics. But it doesn`t have the warmth of the wood- bodied Koetsus.

I’m a SME V user on a JA Michel ORBE SE. please save yourself and look at SOUNDSMITH Mc/Moving iron.