SME 312S versus SME V-12

The 312S arm uses gravity as the VTF provider whereas the V-12 uses spring pressure.

Having forgotten to re-tighten the counter-balance weight less than a quarter turn of the locking screw on my 312S arm when adjusting the VTF, I wondered where the mids and highs had disappeared to (relatively speaking). Therefore, one suspects with a resolving system that you would have some minor differences between the passive 312S suspension and the active V-12. Whether its good or bad will depend on you.

I chose the 312S arm as it came with the SME 20/12A turntable.

Hi Mauidj

Absolutely amazing. I liken this combo to a formula one racing car in that one tweak here will require a compensating tweak there and so on. One tweak too far and the race is lost etc.

I've had pant-wettingly good moments or like I mentioned above, sad moments where I'd thought I'd stuffed something up permanently. Such is the difference in sound by such minor tweaking or over-tweaking.

So I've had my combo performing like the commenters that say "SME tables are dead" to those who say "this is one of the top 4 or 5 turntables in the market".

Now that it's set up and been running for a while and quite stable from my changing things point of view, I'm glad that I won't need to buy another table in my lifetime, although I will seek out different cartridges to the ZYX Omega over the rest of my lifetime but it is quite sensational to listen to for the next few years.

Let me just add that the Dr Feickert protractor and the associated Adjust+ software was invaluable to setting this combo up properly. The azimuth setting via the Adjust+ software made the most amazing difference, not so much in outright sound, but the depth of the soundstage became huge and the attack and decays of the high notes simply astounds and astonishes.

Peterayer,

I hear you. Yes, the cartridge I am currently using is a ZYX Omega copper and whilst the cantilever is mounted straight in the cartridge (only line-of-sight but my eye says ok), according to the Adjust+ software the azimuth angle of the stylus was 2.5 degrees out. Under magnification, the stylus is at an obvious angle. I find that unexpected and disappointing in a $3k cartridge (approx price here in Australia) and may indicate why the price of these ZYX cartridges fluctuates wildly around the world.

So in your original statement where it shouldn't matter, you are absolutely correct. But where the headshell is removable, even though the SME folks have designed a great locking mechanism that pretty much snaps in, there is a small amount of rotational movement allowed for the azimuth correction so it is best to understand if you have the headshell correctly aligned even if the cartridge is perfectly aligned within itself anyway.

So if your headshell is integrated into the arm and not moveable and you know the cartridge to be perfectly aligned within itself then there would be no need for azimuth correction. I always suspected the Omega cartridge was not quite right and the Adjust+ software simply horrified me as to how much it was out of rotational alignment.