What Does It Take To Surpass A SME V?


Thinking about the possibility of searching for a new tonearm. The table is a SOTA Cosmos Eclipse. Cartridge currently in use is a Transfiguration Audio Proteus, and it also looks like I will also have an Ortofon Verismo if a diamond replacement occurs without incident. 

The V is an early generation one but in good condition with no issues. Some folks never thought highly of the arm, others thought it quite capable. So it's a bit decisive. 

The replacement has to be 9 to 10.5 inches. I have wondered if Origin Live is worth exploring? Perhaps a generation old Triplanar from the pre owned market?

 Any thoughts on what are viable choices? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

neonknight

I currently have an Origin Live Sovereign with dual arm boards.  Mounted I have the OL Conqueror mk4 and the OL Enterprise mk4. Both arms do have enough actual weight that the floating SOTA arm board would require careful balance consideration.  Previously I have owned the OL Encounter mk3c and an OL Illustrious mk3c. The Illustrious  performance could satisfy your pursuit to exceed the SME V in my experience.  

@lewm - I am just following advice from @jcarr that experimenting with more mass may be useful, and that Lyra carts often sound progressively better up to 16-18 g. 10 pct at the c-w is obviously a rough approximate, very dependent on the pivot to c-w distance, etc. Have you tried this, on a SME V? In my case, tweaks come and go, sometimes they stay - so we'll see.

@rossb 

 

Which length 4 point did you have? I am going back and forth on the AO or Kuzma 4 point 9 for my new table.