What Does It Take To Surpass A SME V?

@neonknight Your request for info is based around alternative Tonearm Options to the SME V of a Dimension a as stated in the OP " The replacement has to be 9 to 10.5 inches. 

"What are you talking about? I wrote nothing about this "theory". You people created it all on your own". 

12" Tonearms were brought into the Thread not by @pindac 

The follow up to the sharing about a 12" arm being deselected for another, is where the thread fell apart, as the the usual P**ing Match kicked off to prove one opinion is more valid than another's.

Your Thread being hammered with unimportant info' and tolerated by yourself, with no value seen in the content being presented to your own inquiry. 

Standalone Tonearm Pods were not brought into the Thread by @pindac .

Making the Statement " stand alone tonearm pods are a disaster in progress " is not produced from the @pindac Keyboard.

The follow up reasoning being bludgeoned into the thread for explaining the disaster of a Standalone Arm Pod is flawed and suggests that TT designs that aren't Rigid Coupled are, and points the finger at numerous TT / Tonearm Interfaces as being inferior in their design, suggesting aesthetic is a contributor to the failure.

The SOTA Cosmos Eclipse is as exposed to the accusation of being a inferior design as all the others 'thrown under the bus'.

@mijostyn is wrong, especially when they are advocates and are actively promoting a TT and Tonearm, the same Brand as your own that is not a Rigidly Coupled Design.

My assessment is that the design has way to many parts to be used for the Structure to even be considered as a Rigid Structure. The Separate Tonearm Pod is an assembly of Laminations of different materials and attached to a separate material to the Platter Spindle.

What I feel confident in saying is that the design used in your case, with whatever tonearm of a 9" - 10.5" Dimension, will be capable of producing an " endless experience of Successful Replays "

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The original question is what does it take to surpass a SME V? My turntable is a SOTA Cosmos Eclipse. So it's a floating subchassis. I have no need to discuss tonearm and bearing mounting structure because my choice is defined by the 1 inch thick aluminum subchassis. 

Sorry OP 😥

Yes, lately analog threads on audiogon have the tendency of running off the rails, far away from OP's original inquiry.

The good news is your Cosmos table is fantastic, as is your SME V arm (which I'd love to try someday). You're in the happy position of trying to improve on existing greatness. The Cosmos's rigid sub-chassis is a key part of that design, which was my objection to the arm pod suggestion (not to mention having to manage P2S distance and dustcover clearance, etc). The SOTA's are simply designed to work well with gimbal arms of around 9" - 9.5", on their integrated arm boards. And the SME V is kind of a "classic" for that form factor. Besides the FR64fx, I've had a Technics EPA-500 on my SOTA Nova; it was also quite nice and kinda wish I'd bought it. 

Bettering a SME V is going to depend on the table, musical choice and the cartridge synergy to the arm..all of which are totally subjective to each listener.

There are a number of interesting tonearm designs out there today. The new Supratrac Blackbird is an interesting play on a multiple point unipivot for example. 

Budget considerations are also in question here, as a Basis Superarm 9 will better a SME V, but at a price! 

The old war horse SME 3012 is not a contender IMHO. Unless, of course you like a certain colored and non-resolved sound. ( Many are convinced they do!). The knife edge chatter of its bearing is pretty easy to hear on a high enough resolving system!

The aforementioned Vivid Float is a good option, as are the newer Well Tempered Arms ( Bill Firebaugh knows a thing or two about arm design, IMO). 

Lots of options to replace the SME V, all are colored to one extent or another, so you pick your flavor..:0)

One new tonearm that looks VERY interesting, and is actually quite reasonably priced (2,200 Euros preorder), is the Korf TA-SF9R. It has removable headshells and should easily fit a SOTA. If you peruse the Korf blog, the designer has made absolutely HEROIC efforts at a scientific-based approach to tonearm design while maintaining the perspective of a true audiophile and analog lover. I definitely don't need another arm, but have half a mind to try one myself.

Mulveling, What is there about the Korf tonearm that leads you to believe it might outperform an SME V?  What I see is that neither the pivot point nor the counterweight lie in the plane of the LP surface.  Nor does the CW appear to be decoupled from the pivot, although it may be.  All 3 of those design elements are now fairly well accepted to be optimal for a pivoted tonearm, at least according to theory.  Yes, there are many great vintage tonearms that don't meet these design criteria and still manage to sound excellent.