SME 309 or SME 3009r?

I don‘t rate the 3009 at all. In the early 80’s we couldn‘t get them off our tt‘s quick enough. Kill PRAT stone dead. Absolutely no idea why the nostalgia buffs go on about them. Probably because they look cool. The bearings are cr**

I agree with @dover - sell them both and buy a better one..

based on reading some specificatons

I know all too well. I also owned one for four years. It‘s beautifully constructed and offers very high perceived value for money. It tracks exceedingly well and allows easy adjustment. Tonally it is fine. But where it falls in a screaming heap is in PRAT.

It is absolutely hopeless with music that is rhythmically based and is dynamically constrained. Once you listened to something like an Ittok you simply couldn‘t go back. For me it renders music in a boring, lifeless fashion that I could never go back to, and represents the antithesis of what I look for in music. In the 80’s it was not held in very high esteem. Just because a forum today says something is good doesn‘t mean I have to take their opinion seriously. Sometimes old things become fashionable…

sorry @lewm I have not heard the Technics and can not comment. I do not make pronouncements based on spec sheets.

@yogiboy I find your comment interesting. I trialled a MkIV on my Rock tt and was rather underwhelmed, although it did some things very well. The dealer told me that the IV was a bit of a dud and that I really should listen to a V. Unfortunately I moved and never had the opportunity to take him up on his offer.

Among others, Townshend Excalibur, Linn Ekos and Jelco 750D with upgraded wiring and headshells when I feel like playing with cartridges

I’ve also got a Japanese broadcast arm of unknown pedigree which mates rather nicely with a VDH Denon 103

the SME I trialled was one of the first on the market, and its performance was not top tier for the great uneducated & specification oriented on this thread. I dare say the improvements wrought by the changes to later production must have been significant.

I just read a 6moons review which sums up my views in a nutshell 

For me this arm is two chopsticks short of a noodle. It’s an ox and it plods

Maybe the SME 3009 was top tier when it came out fifty or so years ago. If the SME wasn’t top tier back then, which arms were?

I certainly agree with you, when it was released in 1959 it was revolutionary, set a blueprint for arm design to follow, and displayed immaculate construction; however I was reviewing it in the contest of the early 80‘s by which time cartridge and arm design had changed markedly.