Top 5 Tonearms Newer or Vintage Under 2500 That Will Beat anything above/below 2.5k?

I am lucky to have had my SME-IV modified by the late Brooks Berdan.  He retrofitted the interior wiring with the then best Cardas wire and shot a closed cell foam into the arm wand to eliminate vibration.  Those two steps eliminated the mid-bass bump, making the sound linear from top to bottom.  Also, the horrible SME Din was replaced with an RCA junction box where I fit the finest low capacitance Grover Huffman phono cables to a Audio Interface SUT.   So, I vote for an SME-IV modified as being a top notch arm for the price.

ct01517  Thank you for your six items a tonearm should address.  My modified SME IV falls short on ability to adjust Azimuth (shims only where necessary) and VTA (sprung up or down, difficult to achieve but once set, lock it in).  So, the SME IV can achieve great results but is more difficult to use than some of the other arms mentioned.  I thought I would replace it someday with a Tri-Planar which is more easily adjustable but a friend told me that VTA is more critical for big differences such as for 140 versus 200 gram records.  The SME IV doesn't appear to be so finicky for wide VTA differences, or am I just missing some of the music/can't tell? 

 I still use an Ultracraft AC 400 for my 78s on a VPI 19-4 but I like the sound of my SME better (especially the bass) and ease of use.  

I noticed that my SME IV and an SME V arms are still listed for sale at Acoustic Sounds but at much higher prices ($4,295 for the SME IV) http://store.acousticsounds.com/d/112917/SME-Series_IV_Tonearm-Tonearm 
Buying a used one at 1/4 that price is a bargain.  

The SME V has an oil trough and is said to have higher rated/durable ABEC bearings. I have the 1989 SME IV version with even older bearings played at least 7,000 or 8,000 hours with no apparent wear on a VPI TNT VI (previously on a VPI 19-4). The arms are less sensitive/critical of VTA adjustment which is somewhat difficult to adjust (but leave it set for the average LP). Some dealers said that the SME is more than adequate for VTA LP variances versus some arms where it appears more critical to adjust for differences in the LP cutting angles. A fine pair of arms all around which will last a lifetime.

Please excuse my lack of knowledge concerning the SME V. I haven’t seen one for decades and forgot that it has a VTA adjustment ability. However, it is there and easier than the SME IV per other Audiogon forums but not on the fly. https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/vta-on-sme-v


nsgarch2,517 posts04-12-2006 2:16pmYou can’t adjust VTA "on the fly" with an SME V. It’s main failing IMO (and I own one).

The arm post is held in place vertically by the clamping action of two captive bolts that go thru the adjustable "sled" base (a really great mechanism that makes adjusting stylus overhang a snap).

There is a removable adjustment screw that you can insert to help you make small changes in the arm height, after loosening the clamping bolts, but you cannot do this while playing a record.

If you want to adjust VTA (really SRA) while playing a record, you should consider a Triplanar, or a Graham 2.2 or Phantom (the Grahams are unipivot design, the SME and Triplanar are bearing pivots)

Now, back to my comment that set it and forget it. I’m using a Benz Ruby 3 which is not a hypereliptical but certainly not a conical stylus shape. It apparently is not as critical in set-up as the former but renders great detail using the SME IV. It took several hours and shimming up and down the post to postition the VTA so that the tonal balance was found to my satisfaction. I’ve kept it there for 12 years. The VTF and VTA were found which sounded best for most LPs. Note that I 100% agree that records can vary in VTA per cutting stylus changes as well as record thickness. It makes playing records more challenging than CDs or streaming. I have probably 7,000 LPs which are not and will never be released in any format again, half of which the master tapes do not exist.