Opinions? SME 309 vs OL Silver vs Tecnoarm for KB


Hi all.

I have been running an Ortofon Kontrapunkt B on a no-so-great arm and am looking to upgrade arms. I was wondering everyone's thoughts on what of these three arms would be the best match up:

1. SME 309
2. Origin Live Silver
3. Michell Tecnoarm

Any pros/cons might also help - eg if someone thinks one of these does a particularly good or particularly bad job of controlling resonances, etc.

My current table came with an arm similar to an Acos GST-1, so that may give you some idea of the rigidity expectations to have for the arm board.

Thanks!
gsoravil
I vote for the SME. They're very easy to setup. I can change cartridges and align them in ten minutes.
Actually, I wrote a fairly flexible alignment software program that let's me generate templates for any arm/effective length. So custom setups are not an issue - if this makes any difference to the choice of arm.
If the advertised dynmamic compliance is accurate, the Ortofon should be a good match for all these arms.

Setting up a cart on the SME with their alignment tool is easiest if the cartridge mounting hole to stylus tip distance is 9.5mm. That puts the stylus right under the end of the headshell.

Obscure factoid, but as a consequence of this, if you want to use a Mint protractor on an SME, it has to be made specifically for your cartridge mounting home to stylus tip distance because of the way the SME is aligned. The Rega derived arms are very popular and so standard alignment tools work well with them.

Those idiosyncrasies aside, the SME is a great sounding arm and beautifully engineered. Compared to my Incognito RB300, it's more refined and detailed sounding, and is able to handle to handle more heavily modulated records. I also like the flexibility of the DIN connector for the tonearm cable. A removable headshell is a slight convenience and IMO should not be a deal breaker when choosing between these arms.