SME V Tonearm on eBay Hong Kong Sellers are FAKE!!!
I Googled "Ikeda IT-VTA06", and lo and behold.... https://www.ebay.com/itm/IKEDA-TONEARM-HEIGHT-ADJUSTABLE-ARM-ELEVATION-SYSTEM-IT-VTA-06/123028219595... A mere $2300!!! On eBay of course. I'll be content with my $500 "copy". |
Dear Jonathan, Thanks very much for that URL. I was totally unaware of that product. My first reaction is to note how exactly the Ikeda "B60" resembles my own reproduction of the FR B60. It's deja vu all over again. I cannot decipher the Japanese and so have no idea of cost. I do plan to be in Tokyo within the next two months, to visit our son who lives there. I'll snoop around Akihabara looking for it. As to the inaction exhibited by eBay with respect to bogus SME Vs, why am I not surprised? They are interested in nothing but their own cut of the action, which has grown increasingly excessive as their dominance of the marketplace has enhanced itself over the years. I've got stuff sitting around my house that I would like to sell, but I refuse to go the eBay route just as a matter of principle. |
There is a huge ethical difference between making a replica of a tonearm that is still available from the manufacturer/inventor and then selling it under the pretense that it is a bona fide original and the making and marketing of a reproduction of the B60 accessory for Technics tonearms, whether that replica is of good quality or bad. The seller of the replica B60 acknowledged that he is/was selling a replica, and the price is/was a fraction of that which one would have to pay for a "real" B60. Moreover, the original B60 has been out of production for several decades; there is/was no attempt to defraud. In my opinion, the guy who made and sold me the B60 replica did me a great favor. It adds mass to the base of the pivot point and thereby helps to soak up resonant energy, not to mention the fact that VTA is much easier to adjust with the B60. Nandric’s post reminded me; the B60s that he and I bought, for $500 each, went away after the initial run of production, because, as Nandric wrote, the seller claimed he was not making any money on the item at that price. So it would seem that the current reproduction is from a different source. I do share the sentiments of others as regards the fake SME V’s. By the way, under US law, selling the fake and then shipping it to the buyer under an SME label is "mail fraud", a felony. But you'd have to chase down the crooks in Hong Kong or wherever. Lots of luck with that. On the other hand, eBay should block them. Has anyone lodged a complaint via eBay? |
I don't know whether there is more than source for those B60 replicas, but I have one of the replicas, probably the same one that Nandric purchased, and I have examined it side by side with a bona fide original B60. The replica is as well made as the original. The vertical shaft of my FR64s is not wobbly when mounted in the replica B60, and the motion up and down is well damped and smooth, rather than sloppy. With the adjusters tightened down, the replica B60 has a death grip on the tonearm, as one would want. I have no complaints at all, in fact. I have not watched the video, but if the replica shown in the video exhibits the faults described above, then I can only conclude it comes from a different source. Nandric is also correct in saying that the ones he and I bought are no longer available, for the last few years in fact. |
