SME Series III or Shure SME Series III

It's a great move and the cartridge should work well. A good way to dip your toes into the analog waters, once again, without taking a bath. I hope that your preamp has a phono stage or you have purchased one. If you are a hands on type, there are some really nice setup videos at the analog department website that are Thorens specific. And if you decide to sell the AR, please drop me a line, I would be interested. I enjoy fixing old broken turntables.

Regards,
Marty Kohn
Portland, OR

Viridian,

Thanks to the advice and forbearance of posters at Audiogon and Audio Asylum like you, I have decided to buy the "darned thing" tomorrow. I assume the Ortofon SME 30H cartridge currently mounted is high compliance. This will be my first step into the dark side since more than 40 years ago when I had an AR turntable (I gave away decades ago). I have not decided what to do with the "free" AR I received, the one with the shot arm.

db

Stop messing around here, and on Audio Asylum, and buy the darned thing, before someone else does. It is a great arm, provided that you limit yourself to high compliance cartridges, and the Thorens table is just marvelous, as well. There is no better way to spend $300.00 on a table and you can always get out of it at a profit if for some reason it does not suit your taste.

Same arm. Shure marketed the SME III under its own name in the U.S. for a while.