[bluesky]

Hi

I am seeking some input into the SME IV and V tonearm rewiring.  My take on this is that the SME tonearms is a very serious piece of kit but are let down by the wiring.  They have quite a few joins which start at the headshell and continue all the way through to the RCA plugs through multiple joints.

This concerns me as a far from optimal wiring regime and I would much prefer to have just one wire throughtout from the carridge pins through to the RCA plugs.  Just the same as the well known Incognito tonearm wiring.

Has anyone had any experience in this area or can provide any advice on how viable it would be to rewire these SME tonearms?  Arthur Salvatore has alluded to this on his website but didn't state how this could be achieved.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Bluesky

[TheChairGuy]

Not known on the SME....but Origin Live rates re-wire of the Rega's well below in benefit to the structural modification to the end stub. Don't know the SME's issues...if there are any.

These guys did my Incognito re-wire on the Rega...they do SME's (and others, too).  Fast service, x-lent communication seems the norm there.....http://britaudio.com/Incognito.html

Regards, John

[TONEPUB]

I wouldn't take my SME arm apart for all the tea in china....
But there are some better aftermarket cables that you can
use to get more sound.

I've only used the Cardas with good luck but there are
quite a few others.

Or, you can trade in your V on an iV.vi. it is a bit more
revealing than the V and is actually a thousand bucks less!

The V is a bit warmer and the iV.Vi is a bit faster...

[woodsyi]

I never tried to open up one myself.  I got mine (IV) used and I sent it to the Sumiko (SME rep) people to have it checked out and got a silver DIN to RCA cable from them.  A little dab of Walker Extreme SST on the DIN pins makes for a very nice improvement. 

[bluesky]

Hi

Thanks for this information.  It is intesting to note that adding the silver contact enhancer gave improvements as this would indicate that a single wire would be best and that the wire joints do impact on the signal.  I can't say it has helped me to make a final decision yet on which tonearm is going to be the one "for life" yet, the adventure continues!

Bluesky

[lazydays]

I wouldn't take my SME arm apart for all the tea in china....
But there are some better aftermarket cables that you can
use to get more sound.

I've only used the Cardas with good luck but there are
quite a few others.

Or, you can trade in your V on an iV.vi. it is a bit more
revealing than the V and is actually a thousand bucks less!

The V is a bit warmer and the iV.Vi is a bit faster...

I've had an SME IV for a year and a half, and it's been in my current table for about eight months. I bought mine used (extremely lightly used) from a current member of Audio Circle (we all know him). The arm was sent to Vandenhul for his complete mods (what all that is I don't know). Anyway it's got all his wiring and also his best IC. I like the sonics, and the wiring setup is way better than the table it's on right now (Opera). The cable (IC) is outstanding and much better than the ZU it replaced.
The jumpers that connect the cartridge to the arm wiring can be a pain. Sound wise everything is very open and detailed. May need a little bass (hard to really say, but will try to follow up on this in about a month (will be back to my old amps and new speakers Friday night!). The only thing I can really compair it to is my Graham Robin/D103 combo I had mounted on my Final Tool. The arm tracks better and is much easier to adjust. The sound is thinner with the Graham (but still good). I found a cartridge to be a little harder to setup on the SME (mostly getting the azmuth right), but the Graham was a piece of cake. Other than that the SME is a light year better in every way. I'll be going back to a Grado sometime this weekend, so I can listen a little more in depth.
    Might toss in here that I added a Ginko Cloud under my table, and it made the D103 into an altogether different cartridge. I'm finally getting an acceptable upper end, and it actually sounds pretty good. If you don't have one, by all means lay your hands on one! If I'd have known just how good one was I'd have had one under my Final Tool from day one!
gary

[lazydays]

I wouldn't take my SME arm apart for all the tea in china....
But there are some better aftermarket cables that you can
use to get more sound.

I've only used the Cardas with good luck but there are
quite a few others.

Or, you can trade in your V on an iV.vi. it is a bit more
revealing than the V and is actually a thousand bucks less!

The V is a bit warmer and the iV.Vi is a bit faster...

before buying the SME IV I asked around about the difference between the V and the IV. 5 out of 6 people said buy the IV!
gary

[bluesky]

Hi

I followed up with Brit Audio as recommended and yes, they do rewire with the Icognito.  They state it is one piece wiring from cartridge pins to RCA plugs.  I feel this must be better than having half a dozen joins from the headshell leads, then into the tonearm itself, then into a set of DIN plugs at the tonearm base and then (finally) onto the plugs.

I want to do away with the RCA's and hardwire the output into the step up transformers and then hardwire this to the phono stage and hardwire to the preamp.  The signal from MC cartridges is so tiny that I believe it needs all the help it can get and when you look at the amount of joins as I have outlined here you can see just how many times the signal may have to cross some sort of joint in it's journey from the cartridge, through the tonearm, the step up transformer, phono stage and finally to the preamp.  When someone mentioned the improvement from using a silver contact enhancer I felt that this helps to validate my concerns about having so many joins in the signal chain.  This wiring regime would eliminate many of these joints and, hopefully, significantly improve overall sonic integrity and my musical enjoyment.   

Bluesky 

[TheChairGuy]

The signal from MC cartridges is so tiny that I believe it needs all the help it can get and when you look at the amount of joins as I have outlined here you can see just how many times the signal may have to cross some sort of joint in it's journey from the cartridge, through the tonearm, the step up transformer, phono stage and finally to the preamp. 
Bluesky 

Your preachin' to the choir on that one to me....I agree wholeheartedly    All the fiddly-bits add noise and take away sonic thrills.  The goal should be a transmission line as short and direct as possible to what line level components have already (knowing we're already buggered from the start by re-equalization and greater gain needed) I think.

I'm looking at the Incognito wiring now (on my Rega RB250 with other mods...that I'll be selling shortly as I bought an Origin Live arm recently).  It's really trick.  I still can't wrap my head around how theey made a one piece loom from cartridge clip to (very lightweight, feels like aluminum) rca's.  Really trick....the exposed leads are even shielded.  There is no noted noise on my MM phono input now all the way cranked up.

It's all very trick...BritAudio were really easy to deal with, too