Blackbird / SME


Hi all,
will a Sumiko Blackbird fit an SME 3009 improved ( non detach ) ? It is on a Thorens TD 125 mk II . Goes to a Manley Stingray through a Lounge Audio LCR. Thanks.

Mike
128x128jazzman463

Showing 5 responses by mijostyn

Go on Amazon and search for Technics Head shell weight. One should do it. If your resonance frequency winds up too low you can shave parts of the weight off with a Dremel tool to get it right 8-10 Hz. get the Hi FI News test record.
Viridian, the effective mass of the detachable head shell version is 12.5 gms. This version is 9.5 grams not 6.5. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that vertical bearing it is just expensive to make. Every arm has some "secondary" resonances the better tonearms are usually well dampened as I am sure the SME is. The Blackbird has a compliance of 12 X 10 -6 cm/dyn which is on the lowish side. This arm is a little light for this cartridge. The detachable shell version would have been a better match but that can be fixed with a little added weight and a test record.
Viridian I would tend to trust SME's specs more than Analog Classics
Chatter is a figment of some peoples minds for some reason. I doubt this can happen even with loose bearing races. Forget about tapping the arm tube. Tap the cartridge body. If that rings you have a problem. Yes, a stiff cartridge might reflect a little more energy but actually unless the cartridge body weights less than than the effective mass of the diamond and cantilever extraordinarily little energy is reflected back to the arm. In reality the effective mass of the diamond and cantilever are so low in a modern cartridge in relation to the mass of the cartridge I would be surprised if the arm see's any energy other than the linear force that moves the arm across the record. I love these myths perpetrated by people who think they know what they are talking about. Unfortunately, these myths frequently get wings because they seem to make sense.
Beware of people who seem to make sense. 
Viridian I am 65 and have own over twenty tonearms. I never bothered to count and at least twice as many cartridges all the way back to 1965. 
OK Viridian now it is your turn. Prove to us that a tonearm can chatter and we want to know exactly how you determined this and we want to see the data.
Viridian, experience is everything in this life. Yes I am old and have had a lot of tonearms which does not explain you backing out of an argument because you have no idea what you are talking about and are intensionally misleading everyone in this forum. It is people like you that make having intelligent conversations almost impossible. Again, where is your proof that knife edge bearings chatter. I'll tell you where it is. Only in hearsay. 
Thanx dekay. Is this SME's data and why should I believe Analog Classic's data? How are they measuring EM? 
There is only one way to set up a tonearm, Tip Top. Oh and 62 is much stupider than 65. You are not even on Medicare yet:)
Viridian, Some things are demonstrable facts and others are opinions. I have no problem stating facts for what they are unless someone can give me data to the contrary. Saying that a tonearm "chatters" is a rather derogatory comment sure to bother insecure SME owners. I have never heard a tonearm "chatter." I have never seen a method to test for tonearm "chatter." Until someone shows me repeatable data to the contrary I will hold "chatter" as just anther one of those audiophile myths
this endeavor is ripe with. As for experience. Do you know what being a prison inmate is like? I hope not. You have to have been in that position to understand it, same for being pregnant. Hard to explain to a male what that is like. Experience is the best teacher of all followed by making mistakes.
noromance, great combination. Not even an old and worn knife edge bearing will chatter. To much weight on it. Only if you shake the turntable can you induce chatter. Now a really worn ball bearing race may click if you twist it back and forth. Lets see if I can draw an analogy. A moving stylus causing a tonearm to chatter would be like a fighter plane causing an aircraft carrier to chatter. That should be about right.