Has anyone had experience with the Schroeder Arm

Hello Paul,
Writing from beautiful Colorado right now. I'm afraid I can't give you a definitive answer regarding the fibre versus lead question. If your machinist refers to "Hartgewebe", phenolic resin impregnated cotton(or other fibres)heat/pressure traeted, then go for it. The material has a chaotic structure and exhibits practically no ringing whatsoever. Astronomic telescopes of smaller proportions are often made utilising Pertinax(phenolic resin impregnated paper)tubes because of the high internal damping(less vibrations=sharper image), it also has a very low temparature expansion coefficient(no change in focus due to temperature changes). I went to using Pertinax for the outer layer of the No.2 armwands because of these traits. Whether a lead sheet yields superior results is also dependent upon the thickness of the sheet used, I'd go for a thin sheet, but ultimately there is no getting around trying it(or several versions...).
As for the SME30, sorry no experience, but several customers of mine use Ref.arms on SME20s and have been very happy with that combination(carts range from Ortofon Rohmann to Koetsu Red Sig. Platinum).
Gotta send this before the computer crashes again(just rewrote this...)

Cheerio,

Frank

P.S.: An ideal set up? Even if I knew(and proclaim) what that would be comprised of, I'd be stepping on so many peoples toes that are convinced they have the answer, I'd stay quiet...

Dear sirspeedy,
Yes, the arm wiring has a tremendeous influence on the overall resulting fidelity. But it isn't enough to look at different conducting materials, the insulation, the solder joints, the cartridge clips and, very importantly, the armwand material(eddy current losses) play an important role. There is no perfect wiring for all carts. Your carts features silver coils? Use appropriate silver wiring and cartridge clips. Copper coils? My choice would be solid core copper, teflon or thin laquer insulation, and so on...
A friend of mine experimented extensively with cyrogenic treatment. You could shurely hear a difference, but proper break in yielded almost no discernable difference.
If you kink solid core wires it is as if you're starting all over again. But that is subject to another debate...
Sonic signature of arms in particular, hmmm - I won't comment on other arms, suffice it to say that it was my goal to build arms that introduce virtually no disturbance of the cart's tracking the grooves. Of equal importance is the way the arm copes with the energy fed into it, here is where my arms differ quite a bit from others. Before I turn this answer into an ad, I'd recommend you listen to one for yourself. No theoretical advantage is worth a dime if your impressions tell you otherwise. Hope to hear about your impressions one day!

Best,

Frank

Hi Doug,
Thanks for your kind words. I'd like to point out though that the bearing is just one(albeit an important one) element of the arm. Since vou can't depend on dissipating energy via the arm's base you need to deal with it further up the line. Let's say I was to use ceramic, titanium, steel or similar material for the armwand(tried all that and then some...) you'd be getting a VERY pronounced sonic "character". The counterweight, how it is coupled to the armstub, the mounting plate and it's variable coupling to the armwand allow you to accomodate different cartridge's vibration output without sacrificing dynamic shading or PRAT.
Ahh, my host just got me a nice drink(thanks Steve!) so excuse me for a while.

Cheers,

Frank

Just a quick one...
The thread/string material is the same on the Ref.and No.2 arms. The No.1 arm has been discontinued(well, still available on special request...)

best regards,

Frank