2. analog
  3. 147716-5555

SME 312S arm pulling into the center too much.

I have an SME 201/12 with 312S arm.
It has been a great system for several years.
Recently I did not use it for over a year and when I did get back to it I have found that the arm is pulling to the center way too much.
Even when i set anti skating at maximum it still sends the arm to the middle way too fast on a blank record.
Obviously the sound is out of balance to the right.
I called SME England the the guy told me that the groove forces would send the arm outwards and that the anti skate acted in the opposite direction!!!!
I was stunned to say the least.

It is made worse by the fact that the new US distributors do not even publish a phone number let alone answering it when you call.

Before i pack up the arm and return it to the UK just wondered if anyone had similar experience with SME anti skating.

Aloha!
mauidj

Showing 3 responses by millercarbon

millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
Its nothing but some other guys saying they noticed the same thing,  https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/anti-skating-sme-v that twisting the wires affects anti-skate. I would just search around using terms like SME 312S tension spring, schematic, manual, etc I’m at work where we are stuck with the Goolag and its censored search results but maybe you can use Duck Duck Go or one of the other legit search engines to find what you’re looking for.

Unless its so far off its resulting in mis-tracking then anti-skate really isn’t all that big a deal. If you can twist that wire enough to get by I would just go with that. If not then it shouldn’t be all that much in the way of tools to take it apart enough to figure out what’s going on. It works by spring and filament. Odds are the filament either broke or came off whatever its supposed to be stretched across and that’s why its not working.
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
A quick search turned up almost the exact same thing with this arm, right down to the internal wire affecting skating. Sounds like another fine example of genuine British crapsmanship. And I say that being the happy owner of an Origin Live Conqueror. They have good ears, those British. But its a small country. Maybe Williams and Cosworth got all the good engineers?
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
Skating force is related to groove drag, which in turn is related to groove modulation. A blank record has no groove, nor modulation, so can't be used to set anti-skate. However, if you can't dial in enough anti-skate to stop the arm on a blank record then you sure don't have enough for it in a groove.

Your anti-skate is broken. Before sending it to someone as clueless as you talked to at SME I would try and fix it myself.
More to discover