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help with clearance between sme 3009 arm's tube and arms lifter assembly

Hello guys,
I’m writing to ask for your support to correctly couple a Thorens TD160B mk 2 with a a SME 3009 improved seried 2 removable headshell arm. The cartridge I use is a Benz ACE L.

I bought the arm’s base and mounted the arm, verified its null points with the protractor, regulated the pickup orientation and put the cartridge shell parallel to the LP surface with an LP on the mat.

So far so good.

The point with me is that the clearance between the arm lifter assembly and the arm tube: it is too short. When putting the cartridge on the LP the arm tube touches the arm lifter (the semi-arc on top of the lifter case) and so it the stylus does not touch the LP at all.

I know (or at least I think I know) all about the exagonal 1/16’’ screw to be unscrewed to rise/lower the arm’s pillar and the other to untighten and rotate the arm lifter ring. So, I screwed the hex screw to rotate the arm lifter ring to the lowest point of the thread which below the arm’s yoke, on top of the arm’s pillar, but the clearance between the arm’s tube and the lifter is still too small to any avoid contact between these two parts.

With that said, now I run out of ideas.

Images at: 
https://imgur.com/zNxfC1p
https://imgur.com/qx0x6TG
https://imgur.com/GVeJjj4
https://imgur.com/KcAhhLG

Please, is there anybody out there ( ) who already run into this problem and who is so kind to help me ?

An additional info: in order to correctly set the arm pillar height (it affect the VTA...) I put a small inclinometer on the top of the cartridge shell and adjusted the height of the pillar until the cartridge shell was parallel to the disc surface. Is it correct ? I think so, but prefer to ask.

Many thanks
Luca
lsfarzo
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
Right. Raise the arm. Shim it up at the base, or however height is adjusted on that arm. The guys that design these things, they don't know where the arm will be used but they do know the angle the arm should be at wherever it is used. So it is unlikely they designed a lift that cannot achieve that angle. More likely you have it a bit low. They made a poor choice putting the lift so close to the arm pivot, it has the advantage of a lot of lift for little lifter range of motion but it also leverages tiny movement at the lifter into huge movement at the stylus. 

Anyway, if you raise the arm it will raise VTA and you will hear a little more clean articulate sound. If it was fat before and now higher is better then great. But if it was fine before and raising it becomes too lean and tipped up sounding then you can always fix that by adding a little fO.q tape as a shim between the cart and head shell. Added at the back end will tip the back end down slightly, producing the effect of a lower VTA without having to lower the arm.

It will also improve sound quality with greater presence and detail, making it well worth the money, but that is another story for another day.
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mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,570 posts
 
@isfarzo, was that arm rebuilt? It looks like it has an aftermarket knife bearing installed which is locating the tube too low. You already have the arm rest platform as low as it will go. Lowering the back of the arm will help but that might give you the wrong stylus rake angle. You could also raise the front of the arm by placing a shim under the cartridge but your ability to be able to adjust for the right SRA is going to be limited.
I suggest you get in touch with these people http://www.smetonearms.com/ and see what they have to say.
You may want to send your beautiful arm to them for a check -up!
dekay's avatar
dekay
6,191 posts
 
I would raise the arm height and if the sound is then too bright use a thicker mat (or cartridge shim - see below).

Most of my non-improved 3009’s have been tail up a bit (not much) when used on 160’s and 125’s, though they were level when used on 121/124.

I experienced the same problem when trying a very thin wool felt mat on my current TD125/3009 and simply shimmed the felt mat with a cork one underneath.

Never tried cartridge shims, but doing so does make sense if you are set on the current mat.

The only "improved" I’ve owned had bearing issues so I never played around with it much, plus this was 40 years ago.

PS:  I still use "shim mats" when playing super thin 70's Euro import LP's, but just to make them sound less bright.

I've seen ads (here I think) for an add-on "easy to operate" VTA adjuster for SME arms, but forget who makes them.

DeKay
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,570 posts
 
It has been so long. I do believe that if you loosen the grub screw at the back of the arm rest/lifter platform you can twist the entire platform around the post, (take the arm out of the arm rest first and best remove the head shell) the post is threaded. One turn should do it then reposition the arm rest, tighten the grub screw, put the head shell back on and you should be good to go.
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