What Does It Take To Surpass A SME V?

@atmasphere To have owned an arm for 15 Years and thoroughly enjoyed it is a real blessing.

What is also quite interesting is that you deselected other Arms prior to your choice being made, that has proved to be a long-term relationship as the outcome.

I myself at times, get a motivation for probing the next ’what if’, and on occasion a new gem is discovered.

I would encourage a look into the Wire for the Arm that can be selected. If one can be discovered that is off interest, why not speak to the manufacturer about a Service for the Arm and to see if they would install a alternative wire to your choice. They may stipulate a dimension for the Wire, as a pinch point might be present in the wire route that may have a detrimental effect on the mechanical function of the arm.

Suppleness is the key, and a Silicone Sheath is a superb material to achieve this.

I am not aware of your Wire Preference for a Signal Path.

I have not got a great deal of interest in Silver Wire, I have it as a through wire Pin Tags to RCA Phono as a Silver Litz Wand Wire and have used it as a OCC Silver Wire Cable DIN>RCA .

The Cable is Superseded in use for a few years and the Tonearm is no longer used, unless to demonstrate the model to an individual with a interest in it.

To be fair to the Tonearm, it is the overall performance of the Tonearm that has been the main reason for it to be removed from regular use, how much of this is attributed to Silver Wire is not entirely sure.

Silver every so often has a presence that gets my attention, there is a SUT I intend on having a home demonstration from with Silver Coils, it will be a same Brand Copper/Silver A/B and then my owned Models in the Mix and a Head Amp.

My gut feeling from my own experiences is that there is something more to be offered from your Tonearm, and it might be a simple affair to find a very satisfying move to a betterment.

A incentive to update might be a retrospect incentive, when the impression is made from experiencing a choice for a change put in place.

@lewm  , it was not. What I posted happened, it's his style: post after post till he think already win but in this isue has no reason to post and post and post and all because his friend and because he think is " the best tonearm " outthere. He has knowledge in tube electronic but certainly is not in that way with cartridges or tonearms, at least not as he think.

Lewm you only have to re-read again his statement in that post to know he is totally wrong:

" Back in the old days when the SME5 was first made, there were only three top arms; the SME5, the Graham unipivot and the Triplanar. "

In those times as today the Graham unipivot as all unipivots was a " terrible " tonearm ( a copy of the Audiocraft unipivot. ) but in those times were all the top Japanese tonearm designs where even today the Tri can't compete with.

So, lewm: waht are you talking about?

In the other side I'm not saying a negative comment on the Tri, things are that there are better tonearms andthat's all.

Facts speaks by its self.

R.

R

Perhaps facts speak for themselves, but where are the facts in your insulting post? Also, I do not want to be dragged into defending the Triplanar.  That has nothing to do with it.  It is the manner in which you delivered your opinion.  Don't you get that you are not the only one who can be insulted?  You like to use the word "win".  That is the problem; most of us are not trying to win anything. It's quite OK for you to point out whatever you think are the drawbacks of the Triplanar or any other piece of gear.  I think we have a consensus that there is no such thing as "the best" tonearm or the best anything.

I can’t see any " insult " and yes there is no " best " tonearm.

What ’s wrong with the word " win " that certainly is not my target in any thread. I posted several times that an audio forum is " win " to " win " with no loossers at all.

R.

I tried several arms when I got into the hobby, several decades ago, but at that time I judged the SME V to be the best choice and I still use them on a Sota Cosmos and a VPI TNT V in two of my systems. 

Setting up amd trying different arms with the same tables and cartridges is a lot of work and once you reach a conclusion you aren't anxious to do it all over again.  I certainly agree that there are other arms out there that may be superior but I long ago stopped searching for the audio golden grail.