Blackbird on an SME 3009 II

Stan,

I have the cart but won't have the table and arm for awhile yet.

Please explain this concern over rigidity. How does rigidity of the arm effect a cart? I know the bearings on these vintage arms are not as rigid as modern bearings. What carts or types of carts are a good fit for them then? Thanks.

MC cartridges generate considerably more vibration when tracking a record due to the coil moving rather than the magnet. More mass is involved and is the reason that the compliance of MCs are generally lower than MMs. That is very generalized and there are exceptions. Think of it this way, the purpose of the arm is to keep the cartridge in the grove, vibrations generated by tracking the grove are transferred to the arm, setting up vibrations in it which are then transferred back to the cartridge and degrade its ability to track the grove. The solution is to either make the arm massive or to make it rigid; either of these will make it less susceptible to the vibrations. If the arm is not rigid it will have serious resonance modes which will be excited by the vibrations of the cartridge. No arm is perfectly rigid but the better ones will be less excited. High mass means that the vibrations will not affect the arm as much as they have more mass to move. This is an extremely complicated subject and this is very simplified but I hope this is some help.

The classic match with the 3009 was Shure, but the Type V is discontinued. IF the Blackbird does not work I would try something like the Ortofon MMs, either their current range like the Blue or Black or a NOS from their classic range; these can be found on ebay. AT also makes a good range of MMs, I use one of their MCs and it is quite good , I haven't tried the MMs.

Stan,

Thanks for your thoughts. I learned something from your last post.

I had concluded that the Shure V15 was definitely worth trying and have two of them coming. For not a lot of money.

Also I have some cheap AT MM that came with an Acoustic Solid table that I've had around for years as a spare cart and every time I put it on I've been amazed by how good it is. It's like a $100 cart I think.

I have liked the Ortrafon Kontras in the past but am done doing LO MC.