SL1200GAE New Tonearm

SME 309, IV, or V. Best tonearms in the world IMO.

Reed is out of Lithuania. I was born there. Interesting... 

@chakster Because silver wire makes a significant improvement on small signal level phono. 

@chakster Cardas was the worst wire out of any I've tried, IMO. Just lazy and indistinct sounding. van den hul MCS150M is my favorite. 

Just because the tonearm cable is copper, it doesn't mean that the silver tonearm wire portion will not have a positive impact. From my experience, it has a very big impact. 

I use silver plated van den Hul 501 DIN to RCA tonearm cable, comes stock with SME. So far I haven't found anything better.

For removable cartridge leads, I've settled on Ortofon LW 800 S, which is a mixture of solid silver strands and silver plated copper. 

I don't use silver anywhere else in the system as it becomes overwhelmingly too much. I find copper to be better. 

@chakster I had an OEM Rega tonearm which I used for testing. Rewired it a number of times and tried most of the better know tonearm wire on the market. Cartridges used were OC9/II and ART9. I have since moved on to 2M Black and SME 309, but the results still hold true.

I have an exceptional sound memory and extensive knowledge in what to listen for. Familiarity of the system is also a key factor. I consistently prefer silver wire when it comes to anything related to phono. I see that Ortofon, SME, John Curl, and many others have also come to a similar conclusion. My preferred manufacturer of silver phono cabling is van den Hul.

As for recommending other members to modify commercial equipment, I would never do that. But upgrading the cartridge leads to Ortofon's silver LW 800 S and tonearm cable to van den Hul's D-501 Silver Hybrid would have my highest recommendation.