SME IV, 309,used vs Origin LiveEncounter MK3cTonearm or Illustrious for J.A. Michell ORBE

SME is the best tonearm in the world. In my opinion of course. Get the most expensive model you can afford. 

How do you know it was the arm and not the cartridge? 

Cartridge matching is critical.  What cartridge are you considering?  The SME is a good arm, but overall performance will be limited if it is mismatched with the cartridge.  Those blindly recommending an arm without knowing what cartridge is being used are not giving you a valid opinion.

Cart is a SoundSmith Zephyr III and will match a SME V well I believe. Also yes blind statements take the back seat I agree.
To be honest I was going to just use a JA Michell Technoarm "A", the second gen of Technoarm, but no real reviews on the "A". Since I had a SME V, like the vta and was ok with the sound. I also had at one time a heavily modified Rega 2xx series that sounded very fine but with out the deep bass and black nature of the SME which made the SME a hit. 

I have owned the OL Encounter and now a Illustrious mk3c.  Excellent arms with very balanced presentations.  In your application I would choose the Illustrious.

I like the SME and have owned one. I have an older OL - 1 Silver that is not as good as the SME. If you liked the SME before I would buy another SME.

Probably an SME