"Harder" cartridge recomendation

Bydlo,
I have no experience with the SME 3012R arm so cannot comment on its ability to handle the FR-7 series cartridges.

Please don't be upset with my friend Nandric.......he is Balkan.
That should explain everything?!
He is blessed/cursed with a sense of humour which is sardonic, sarcastic.....but inevitably keen and meaningful.
Perhaps it also suffers slightly from the translation to English?
I'm sure he will be mad at me for suggesting that mostly........he doesn't mean to offend anyone?

Dear Halcro, the Dutch have this proverb:'protect me my
Lord from my friends I will protect myself from my enemy'.

U picku materinu, Balkan am I not, but I do know a few tasty phrases in Serbo/Croato/Bosnian (how do you call this language after the fall of Yu?) and Bulgarian, so Nandric beware ;-)

Comming back to the subject (which is carts and not personal attacks, Nandric): the obvious canon seems SPU-SME and FR-FR.
I briefly tried simulating 3012-FR7 interaction via this great tool:

http://www.vinylengine.com/turntable_forum/viewtopic.php?t=36347

I get something: a peak at 7.7Hz, OK, an alert that VTF should be 3.17g instead of 2g...a bit of a mess...

I have been following this thread for a few days. My first reaction to your post, Bydlo, is that you are asking the wrong question. By starting with the EMT turntable, tonearm, and cartridge, you were bound to end up with their combined sonic signature on your music, for good or ill. (I make no judgement at all; I have never heard any of those products.) Then, by using the EAR 834 phono stage, you have stamped the sonics with the euphonic sweetness of that device. It is my second hand impression that the EMT stuff may also be a bit on the euphonic side. That may be the crux of your "problem". IMO, there is a good chance you will not get where you want to go, if you insist on the EAR 834 as your phono stage. At least I recommend try another more neutral phono stage (borrowed?) before you spend on a new cartridge. If a known more neutral phono stage does not help, then you can look farther back up the chain toward the cartridge/tonearm/turntable. Apparently you like vintage stuff. I do, too. Was there some reason you chose the SME 3012R as your second tonearm?

Hi Bydlo, your Serbo-Croation is much better then your carts understanding. BTW never thought about to test or check any cart by listening to it? Ostensive investigation
make only sense regarding the (broken) cantilevers and (wear out) styli. You may need a magnifting glass btw.
You, I assume, know that all FR-7 kinds are second hand?
Aka: 'used underwear'. Look in your Serbo-Croatian dictionary under 'fetish'.

Regards,