Sme tonearm rewire

[bhaskarcan]

Hi Stevie,

Can u post some step by step pics of ur job? It'll be of great help for us who r contemplating the same but do not have enough courage.

Thanks & Brgds,

Bhaskar

 

[stevieboy]

Will do bhaskar, it's pretty straightforward though, the only tricky part is the earth lug rescrewing. I'm following this superb guide http://www.theanalogdept.com/sme_service.htm

Regards


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[anilva]

Stevieboy,

Are you done with the rewire? Any pictures to share?

Cheers.

 

[stevieboy]

Hehe not yet. Have ordered a tool kit with the required Allen key on ebay india. Could not find one in local shops. Then still gotta order the wire that will happen Tuesday or so cos gotta figure out if the earth lug guy will ship to the rewire guy, both in uk so I'll save soldering and a bit of shipping. Also figuring out long term arm plans so exploring the top plate options also, two arms or only one and a future arm also. So gonna be a few weeks before the wire lands up here. Here's a pic of the dismembered 3012 arm though appropriately in a Nike shoe box... am just doin it!

And here's a pic of the garrard with the 3009. To the right of the acrylic plinth is the slot for the 12 incher. The smaller arm needs more polishing.

The coupling rubber's gone completely and the rider weight is sagging.

Regards


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[stevieboy]

Update: got all the required Allen keys and needle nose plier from murthy commercial street today. Thanks Finyl for reminding me of murthy. Now can adjust everything. Figuring out the cart, zu or normal denon 103 to start with so can order the relevant headshells. The india dist of zu quoted a pretty high price will see if some discount is possible else as usual order from abroad. Peripherals will be ordered tonight, wire tomorrow then sit back and wait for things to arrive!

Anybody have any advice or suggestions on a decca London with an sme 3009 series II? Research seems to indicate that with the damper sme kit it works although the first choice is a light unipivot or a linear tracker... Anybody heard a decca or a friend is running one? All feedback welcomed


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[stevieboy]

Update: Cashing in all the bookmarks I collected over the years. Picked up the strobe disc and strobe light today morning. The gold one with keystrobe duo option. A great strobe cos you can play your lp and adjust speed, unlike the ones which sit over the entire platter. The keystrobe is label size, so it will let you account for stylus drag if you're particularly analytical. Me I like the small size, cost and always prefer buying from the UK.

Buy

 

[quad]

For the led strobe, there's also a diy option -

Schematic for simple strobe light -

Very simple LED strobe - AudioKarma.org Home Audio Stereo Discussion Forums

Strobe disk (can be printed on any printer using ghostscript) -

WTB: strobe disc-light - diyAudio

 

[stevieboy]

Hi Quad,

Yes the diy one seems a good option for those handy with diy. I had downloaded a circuit long back it must be on my comp somewhere... I guess all those who have made the CNC can also attempt this?


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[murali_n]

Hi stevie,

Nice job that you're doing. I had earlier got my Technics DD TT tonearm rewired by a Technician. After one wire snapped , I had disassembled the Tonearm and replaced the same myself. its a very satisfying job. In both cases I had used Cardas wires from kabusa.com. The difference is very audible compared to the stock Technics wire.

N.Murali

 

[stevieboy]

Hi Murali,

Thanks! The only thing that got me doing this project was to see how the SME arm worked cos this legendary arm fascinated me. I wanted to strip it down and see how each part fit. Achieved that and had my fair share of enjoying making the spring plunger pop up in the rider weight and spinning the knife edge bearing round and round just to see how long it would go before it stopped. Placed one more order of the odds and ends, rider weight etc yesterday, is on its way, today I'll measure the exact wire I need and place the order. Then the boring part of putting it all back together again.

Regards

 

[santhosh]

Then the boring part of putting it all back together again

Steve,
To me that's the interesting part actually. Did some reading on the topic, seems quite complex. Would like to be around when you do this. If it is gonna be done in a phased manner, please post detail pics. TIA.

 

[stevieboy]

Hehe trust me Santhosh, taking it apart is more fun, or maybe its just me That's when you truly understand how the arm works. Once you've seen it all, putting it back together is a done deal except for the earth lug which simply involves trying to get it to line up blindly inside the armtube and screwing the steel saddle while getting the screw to go inside into the earth lug. You can help me with this holding the arm, will be great to have help! Will call you over then since you're interested. Yes, it'll be done in a phased manner and I'll post pics:
1. Putting the rubber coupling in and gluing it to the tonearm and letting it set.
2. Threading the wire through the arm base inside the armtube to the headshell socket end.
3. Taking this to finyls recommended guy in Koramangala to get the new socket wire desoldered (the new socket comes with its own wire which I shall keep aside for another use, its for a 9" arm) and the new cardas wire then soldered to the headshell. I'd rather get a pro job done than end up doing a cold solder or a shoddy job.
4. Get the arm back home, fit the steel saddle with the earth lug, yoke, screw on the counterweight and rider weight and we're done!

It's so well and simply put together I think I took it apart in 5 mins, except for figuring out how to take out the headshell socket which ended up being a simple pull out affair. The Garrard's playing so all that's left is to fit the cartridge, align it, set the speed and you'll have the first listen!

Regards

 

[AMITNOIDA]

Hi stevie,

Nice job that you're doing. I had earlier got my Technics DD TT tonearm rewired by a Technician. After one wire snapped , I had disassembled the Tonearm and replaced the same myself. its a very satisfying job. In both cases I had used Cardas wires from kabusa.com. The difference is very audible compared to the stock Technics wire.

N.Murali

@Murali,
Did the Cardas smoothen the sound, specially mid and hirh range? Was there any impact on Bass?
Want to know, as I am thinking to go for Cardas wiring in Rega 251 arm, which may be a probable in my would be TT.
Regards
Amit

 

[stevieboy]

The lovely keystroke just arrived. Do you really need it, no, can use the free ones off vinylengine. But this is a tactile joy to use, the gold and black looks just amazing and the markings are clear and big. And its solid metal so no wavy disc happening anytime soon. Just found that without the speedbox on the project, the speed was indeed drifting.

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[anilva]

The lovely keystroke just arrived. Do you really need it, no, can use the free ones off vinylengine. But this is a tactile joy to use, the gold and black looks just amazing and the markings are clear and big. And its solid metal so no wavy disc happening anytime soon. Just found that without the speedbox on the project, the speed was indeed drifting.

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Strange! The label says "this side accurate for recordings made for 50Hz regions". I thought the turntables are made to work in 50Hz regions and not recordings...

Anyway, enjoy the new toy...

 

[stevieboy]

Hehe nice catch anil!


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[stevieboy]

Finally got the arm rewired!

The old coupling rubbers and new ones.

The rubbers fitted

And arm stub fitted

The tricky knife edge fitted. Took about four tries 15 mins to get it done but in my enthusiasm to check if the screw was really in the lug I kept tugging the wire and broke it. Luckily the soldered end is intact. You can see the earth wire the little blue one

The entire arm with cardas wire and cardas phono plugs. Will take the arm to Koramangala tomorrow to fix the earth wire to a longer length one I have after threading it through the base

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[anilva]

Well done Stevieboy! Looks good and clean. You seem to have a cardas cable directly terminated into phono sockets. I do not know how they managed thin wire to thick wire transformation without a joint...

 

[santhosh]

Well Done Steve and thanks for sharing the W.I.P pics. When can I hear the 301 sing?

 

[stevieboy]

Hi Anilva,

Thanks if you mean thin wire to thick in the signal cable then no it's all thin tonearm wire only right to the plugs. I think the black sheathing where the thin wires end makes it look thick. Is that what you're referring to? The ground wire I will be soldering to a thicker wire so there will be one joint but considering it's ground wire am guessing it won't matter.

Santhosh,
When you're back you can! Or maybe Jan we'll do a session first week or so. Work's a little crazy right now so just enjoying the project itself. That om 5e is still amazing me record after record!

Regards


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