I used the SME MK III, SME 3009 MK II, Infinitive Black Widow, unipivot with magnetic damping tonearms with Grado gold, Shure type II, III, V cartridges on my HW19 with excellent results. The best result is with unipivot with magnetic damping tonearm like Schroder and Shure type V with 1 inch wooden arm board sitting on top of 2 each 1/8 inch brass rods locating between the armboard and the steel plinth. The brass rods really improve the mid and highs and also tighten the bass. I tried 2 inch thick wooden armboard and got muddy sound.
Should I upgrade my SME 3009 III tonearm?
I getting back into vinyl after a long hiatus. Along with 6000 jazz LP's I inherited a never-been-used SME 3009 III tonearm. I was planning to mount it on a VPI HW19 MK IV turntable but had second thoughts after talking to VPI. Basically I was told that the SME arm wouldn't perform as well as even the cheapest of arms available today. I found that hard to believe. For many years I used a SME 3009 II arm/Shure V15 III combination on an Ariston RD11S turntable. It performed very very well and I was a happy camper. I've read recent reviews for more up-to-date arms and I'm not impressed. The reviewers use alot of colorful babble but say little of substance. As for auditioning arms, my part of Ohio dosent seem to have any high-end audio dealers that are up to the task. Anyone have any advice?