Graham Phantom vs. Phantom II

Dear Axel, I am very familiar with the SME V since its introduction more than a quarter of a century ago.
The SME V is not dark.
It is something else. I would rather describe its sonic signature as slightly forward upper bass (due to a resonance in its magnesium armpipe I suppose...).
The sonic side-effect is, that in all set-ups I have heard this tonearm and with all cartridges the sonic performance gives the impression, that the ceiling of the room seems to hand low.......
This may be named "dark" in some ears, but I would rather describe its sonic signature as mentioned.

Agree with DT, but the SME V can be tuned:
Silver cable inside (Silver carries 6% more information than everything else, Graham uses Silver cables for years btw.)
When you can do some work at the Base, the V reacts quite sensitive to it.
Bottom: lead-bloc (or similar)
Middle: Acrylic (just to try)
Top: SME Base

Don't work at the screws or the bridge...

Most SME V I know do already have v.d.Hul silver wiring inside. The top frequencies are more detailed and the sound gets a bit more open.
Blue Tec on the armpipe - especially at the pipe's widening - is another great tweak.
But the ceiling remains hanging too low....... no matter what you do.

Guys
yes, I'll go along with that 'signature' bit, as I'm sure you both had your fair amount of comparisons.

Here my point:
MOST of the latter day 'high-end' speakers tend, at least slightly, towards the lean side of things --- and so do my Burmester 961. (AMT tweeter, 5 1/4" carbon mids, 8" woofers, with 4 order acoustic XO).

Now, this 'lean side' of neutral also (always) means a lack of upper bass (a design challenge), and this is where plenty of musicality / music gets lost.
The SME V arm in a lean-ish rig, AND a slim-ish 'table is where synergy becomes yet an even more significant item.

Axel

Well Axel, from my point of view most (really most .....) current and past day speakers in home audio systems have upper bass only...... hardly any do have any neutral and flat bass worth mention below 60 hz ( I mean free of inverse phase support via bass reflex... - the audio reviews and printed frequency sweeps may tell you otherwise, - but go and have the actual frequency response measured in your room: you will be shocked what really gets delivered).

So, while I won't put your comment in question, that indeed there might be some synergy effects ( in maths "-" x "-" gives "+".......) with some modern day speakers (especially german speakers......), the signature of the SME V still is not dark - its rather a kind of "muted" headroom.

But then this is the Graham Phantom vs. Phantom II thread, not the "does the SME V have a sonic signature" - thread......