What Does It Take To Surpass A SME V?

Given that both arm tubes are cast, requiring moulds to be developed, SME must have had the arm in development before the RB300 was released.

Exactly

The magnesium arms were made raw on behalf of SME to a specialized company in Chicago, magnesium is a dangerous material that ignites easily and companies specialized in treating this metal are needed and then returned to SME which worked, finished and varnished them.
I very much doubt that after seeing the Rega 300 in the space of a few months SME designed an entire tonearm from scratch, looked for components from external companies that they could not produce inside the factory, and finally put the V on the market, so in my opinion it was just a coincidence that Rega was the first to bring a one-piece tonearm to market.
The project certainly started a few years earlier, an arm like the V cannot be improvised in just one year, not even for a bet.
This is to say that it was not copied from the RB300 at all (unless there was industrial espionage)

The dispute has evolved into the challenging of reports to be found on Comparative Performance on a Certain Drive Type of TT.

The dates of Launch are well recorded in History, and I see no further dispute on this matter.

As I am a long term user of Idler Drives that stretches back to the Nineties and in the Country where the Idler Revival was quite prominent, there is a decent amount of info’ to suggest that the RB 300 proved to be a contender has been shared in plenty of circles with an interest in such matters.

With all the Mod’s evolving and being offered for the RB 300, I’m sure the Gap closed for the V/300 comparison to ’beaten by a nose’, more than, ’beaten by a length’.

As said, I adopted the SME IV, and did not compare Rega Design Arm Options during the 90’s. With Hind Sight being the Best Manager, Common Sense will have led me to the RB 300, but the 'Ego' and Power of Marketing proved different as a influence.  

The Rega Design Arms referred to by myself in this Thread, have been compared quite extensively over the past Seven years. The result being that during this period the Arms of this Design are no longer ’in use’ as the main Tonearm. As still owned Tonearms the Rega Design Models are kept for Demo’ purposes and as loan items.

As I am a long term user of Idler Drives that stretches back to the Nineties and in the Country where the Idler Revival was quite prominent

So how long have you lived in Japan ?

there is a decent amount of info’ to suggest that the RB 300 proved to be a contender has been shared in plenty of circles with an interest in such matters.

The Rega made its name because it offered good performance for the money. Audio skinflints like to delude themselves. In my shop in the 80's I often demonstrated to customers that a top arm with modest priced cartridge could easily outperform a Rega RB300 with say a Koetsu.

@atmasphere , I am extremely jealous. I would feel a lot better if I had my amps:-)

@pindac , Not Ariston, AR XA.

@neonknight , It the V is not sounding excellent then the problem is more likely with set up. First. check your resonance frequency with a test record like the Hi Hi News Analog Test Record. Ideally it should be around 8-10 Hz. I try to push it as close to 8 as I can. Then go over the geometry. The Wally Reference tools are a great a place to start. All of the high end cartridges I have examined are right on the money in terms of azimuth and VTA which means the Wally Reference is hands down the most accurate way of adjusting your arm. I must say that I have never examined one of your cartridges. The Wallyskater is expensive but it is the best way to set antiskating by a country mile. I use Lofgren B to align the cartridge. It results in the overall lowest distortion across the record excepting at the very inside grooves where modern records usually don't go. Next would be a worn stylus. How old is your cartridge?

The best way to do a second tonearm with a Sota is just have a second tonearm board made, mount it and adjust it with your second cartridge. Then it is only a matter of a few minutes to swap tonearms, much less than it takes to adjust a new cartridge. I am thinking about doing this for 78s. You can absolutely not use an outboard pod with a suspended turntable. One little bump will send the tonearm flying and I do mean flying. The only suspended turntable I know of that takes two arms is the Dohmann Helix 1. As he has not yet released a vacuum plater for it you are better off staying where you are. Mark Dohmann himself related that the best turntable for the money on the market is the Sota Cosmos. 

“All of the high end cartridges I have examined are right on the money for VTA and azimuth.” What does that mean? There is another parameter to be accounted for, and that is “zenith”, which we define as rotation or lack thereof of the stylus with respect to the cantilever. I scoffed at the idea it’s important once, but I was wrong. 

we all love gadgets, but spending on aWallyskater which is a nifty gadget is an extravagance when AS is never perfect by definition and is as well set by ear.