@has2be, I would take one of Jeff's Audiomods series six arms at less than half the cheapest SME arm listed above, all day ... any day. Especially an arm that can play right along side the SME series IV and V arms .
I own a SME Series IV and was fortunate to be able to select it as a Tonearm following a demonstration of it at a HiFi Event, where it was able to be compared to the Series V. At this time with my experience in listening and on the system used to carry out the demonstrations, using two identical TT's, I was not able to determine where the V was presenting as an improved model over the IV.
Today I also own a AudioMods Series Five Micrometer, and can not make any claims where the SME IV is a noticeably improved Tonearm.
There was a period where the Tonearms seemed to be so similar, I was considering having the IV overhauled and have more up to date parts added to it, to see if improvements were able to be created.
Neither of these Tonearms are used by myself today as the daily used Tonearms.
The most recent developments is that a friend who is building their own design of Tonearm, has also got a few hooks, using modern materials, they would like to use on a Rega Arm they own, and I am to loan the SME IV to be used as a comparison the trials.
We have already discussed that the Rega as Standard and being compared to the IV will most likely share many similarities, as the V and the IV are only present today because the Rega Designs and the Support they received in the early days of the Brands Launch, seriously impacted on the SME 3009/3012 Sales.
SME have not appeared for many years to have adopted a updated technology for their Tonearms, where as Rega Designs has evolved into a Variety of other Brands Products, where new technologies are in use, to gain the improvements that are seen as attractive.
A Rega TT and Tonearm was less to purchase than a SME Tonearm, in the UK at this time, I think a quite accurate guestimate is that nearly every individual between the age of 14 - 20 with a interest in Vinyl LP's owned Rega equipment.
As in all things I comment on today, using ones ears as the Judge is the only method I know that works to determine how attractive a device is to a person, and whether one Model vs another, can offer a noticeable difference, being perceived as for the better.
