SAEC Making Tonearms Again!

Earlier SME tonearms were known for the knife-edge bearing.  It was one of their advertising points.  If the SME V does not incorporate a knife-edge bearing, then I stand corrected.  Whether it does or does not is irrelevant to me.  Is it shameful to use a knife-edge bearing?  If so, I never knew that.

Should make the SAEC 407 ( i believe its a 23 as I can use its alignment template) worth a few more bucks. I am getting ready to pull it off and mount a Technics EPA 250.

I paid $1100 for my WE-407/23 about 5 years ago.......and it is an exquisite piece of eye-candy as were all SAEC tonearms (detail).
I also had the WE-308N which certainly had a puzzling geometry (detail).
I now have the WE-8000/ST which is probably the best of them.

As beautifully designed, detailed and machined as these arms were....they are not the 'last word' in tonearm technology being shaded by contemporaries like the FR-64s and even the Micro Seiki MA-505S.

To be asked to pay $8K-9K for a 35 year old design which doesn't have VTA 'on-the-fly' adjustment is an insult IMHO......

@invictus005: https://www.vinylengine.com/library/sme/3009.shtml 

R.

Good work, Raul.  Of course, the SME V may not have continued to use a knife edge bearing.  I'm sure we will be told.

Halcro, I've never owned an SAEC tonearm, but my recollection just from reading on this site, VE, VA, is that the 308N is the one with the confounding geometry that gave a "bad name" to the whole line-up.  I am not sure what I thought about the 407/23, but by all accounts, the 8000/ST was designed for one or another of the 3 major "acceptable" alignments, and is not at all problematic.  But the 8000 is rare and expensive.  Am I correct in these beliefs?