SME 309 or SME 3009r?

For the great uneducated in this thread - as @neptune123 pointed out the SME 3009R is a totally different model to the SME 3009.

SME 3009 - light arm for medium to high compliance cartridges.

SME3009R - medium mass arm - stainless steel arm tube - released many years after the earlier 3009.

The SME 3009R is a much more sophisticated tonearm - for example the counterweight assembly can be adjusted laterally and well as forwards and backwards to ensure perfect weight distribution over the knife edge bearings.

From the comments above I would surmise that most of you have never heard a SME 3009R, which was sold predominantly in Japan.

As far as the Tinn Tiktok goes - they all had soft bearings - the SME 3009R will be still be running long after the Tiktoks have worn out.

the SME I trialled was one of the first on the market, and its performance was not top tier for the great uneducated & specification oriented on this thread. I dare say the improvements wrought by the changes to later production must have been significant.

I just read a 6moons review which sums up my views in a nutshell 

For me this arm is two chopsticks short of a noodle. It’s an ox and it plods

@pesky_wabbit

What arm are you using?

Among others, Townshend Excalibur, Linn Ekos and Jelco 750D with upgraded wiring and headshells when I feel like playing with cartridges

I’ve also got a Japanese broadcast arm of unknown pedigree which mates rather nicely with a VDH Denon 103