SL1200 upgrade tonearm or replace cartridge?

Ok, is all of this really necessary? I run my SL1210M5G bone stock, and I'm very happy with it. It sounds superb to me. That's my take.

Johnny it's nice to finally see pics of your TT and all it's upgrades. Looks great, I bet it sounds great too!

On a side note, earlier this week two tubes of my phono section died. Two Psvane 12ax7s that were less than 2 years old. Needless to say I am totally Pvissed! I replaced them with some EH tubes. Now the system is really sounding much better and the tubes still need some break in time.

So maybe my itch to upgrade was caused by the dying tubes! Then again maybe not.

Since i began researching my options in more depth, I am starting to like the idea of simply changing the arm wand, as shown in one of the links posted by Vegasears.

I figure the worst that can happen is that I scrap the stock arm. Then I will be forced to upgrade! And I may learn something in the process.

One other factor is that I just heard that Benz has stopped producing cartridges, this maybe my last chance to get a new Glider. Needledoctor has removed prices from their site and replaced them with a note "please call for prices and availability".

Can I mount a ten inch arm on the technics SL1200? The stock arm is 230 mm (9").

If you can swing it budget-wise go for a SME iv or v. I have heard them with a 1200. Both were out of my price range but prompted me to hunt down a OL rb300 with all the mods which I got for a song. Not as good quality as the SME's as far as build & adjustability but a definate improvement.

How would you go about mounting an SME tonearm?