SME V, Tri-Planar or Phantom B-44

I had an SME V and the VPI 10.5 outperformed it - actually, so did my 9 Sig.

The ability of any tonearm to "outperform" another is largely based on 2 factors:
1. The cartridge(s) used. It's difficult to assess either the tonearm or cartridge performance without considering the other. There are very good and very bad tonearm/cartridge pairings. It's critical to match properly.
2. The skill of the user as it pertains to installing and aligning the tonearm/cartridge.

I have the opportunity to install, set up, and tweak many turntables; quite often the owner has, in some way, not optimized the alignment.

Dear Stringreen: Do you play it with your Ebony? what's wrong?

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

I've not heard the Phantom, but I've heard a Lyra Olympos on both an SME V and on my TriPlanar. Different systems, but the preamps and amps were identical and I've heard the SME owner's system with a variety of cartridges, so comparisons aren't totally invalid. It was the same Olympos both times, set up by its long-time owner (and he owns both SME and TriPlanar arms himself, so the setups were probably good).

To all ears, including the Lyra owners', the TriPlanar was a much better match. More life, more snap, much more low level detail. It let the Olympos sound like what it is, one of the world's top cartridges, with just a fine hint of warmth taking it away from today's more neutral or even slightly cool Lyra sound.

On the SME, the same cartridge sounded grey, staid, reserved almost to the point of being dull. For whatever reason, far less information was getting through.

My experience, FWIW.

With the SME V, the Ebony sounded closed in and lifeless compared to either VPI's. Of course, I tried various VTA settings, dampings, etc. If you have nothing to compare it to, the SME sounded fine...only in comparison to the VPI's were the problems revealed.