![how to rewire an sme tonearm how to rewire an sme tonearm](https://i.imgur.com/Yqlq1gk.jpg)
A thumbscrew moves the counterweight on a track to allow the arm to be balanced, a lever then locking the weight in place. In addition, the hanging design (also employed on the Eminent Technology Type II) avoids the concentric reflection of vibrations back into the arm-tube, which can be a problem with conventional counterweights. The counterweight is very close to the pivot point (again minimizing the effective mass), and hangs down from the rear of the arm-tube, placing the center of gravity in the horizontal plane, at the surface of the record. The arm-tube itself tapers radically from pivot to headshell, lowering its contribution to the effective massor alternatively allowing rigidity/stiffness to be increased for a given effective massand again lowering the Q of its resonant behavior. More conventional metalssuch as titanium, which cannot be diecast, or aluminum, which can be diecast but is normally machined from a blockhave far more crystalline structures and higher Q resonances (the material has less inherent damping). Diecasting produces an alloy both very homogeneous and highly amorphous. The arm-tube and headshell are pressure-diecast in one piece, magnesium alloy being chosen because of its very high stiffness-to-weight ratio and its suitability for diecasting.
HOW TO REWIRE AN SME TONEARM SERIES
To call the Series V a good-looking tonearm is something of an understatement. However, SME is now backwith a vengeance! I believe that, once again, it is fair to say that SME makes "the best tonearm in the world." Delays due, among other things, to problems in finding subcontractors who could carry out work to the desired degree of qualitySME's Alastair Robertson-Aikman will not release a product until he feels that it is rightmeant that it took almost two years for that arm to hit the market.
![how to rewire an sme tonearm how to rewire an sme tonearm](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/b45f2e_d1cded1b64d94dbb95ec130844e662de~mv2.jpg)
It wasn't being played, there was no way to tell how it sounded, but it certainly looked the business. I had just about written SME off as a serious high-end company when, at the 1984 Summer CES, I saw the first prototype of the Series V. But I'm dubious.Once upon a time, SME made " the best tonearm in the world." That claim may have been justifiable through the 1960s and early '70s, but then something happenedSME failed to keep pace with their competition in coping with the increasing popularity of low- to medium-compliance, highish-mass, moving-coil cartridges. Cardas tells me it can be used for a single continuous length, including the exposed ±meter from the TT to the preamp - without hum from RFI or EMF et al. It's a single very thin (2mm) cable containing 2 x twisted-pairs of L and R leads, a braided shield, and black outer insulation. IMO, it surpasses any 'advantage' to be gained by using 'better' cables, at the cost of adding more solder and Tnsilver - I'm about to rewire an arm with the same Cardas wire you mention, the version with it's own shield.
![how to rewire an sme tonearm how to rewire an sme tonearm](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/~MEAAMXQfFJRS2vw/s-l225.jpg)
The most direct signal path, with the least breaks, is the best way to preserve the small signals from a cartridge, especially low-output MCs. Any connector, whether the old 4-prong SME or newer RCAs, adds 1 more solder-joint and 1 metal-to-metal plug-joint to each of the four leads from the cartridge. Thus there's only one solder-joint between cartridge output pins to preamp inputs. I've bypassed the old SME connector, and twisted/soldered my exit cables directly to the internal TA wiring.