I would stay as far away from this guy as possible. His guarantee policy is only a ploy to make people think they are dealing with a reasonable person and part with their cash. A real "confidence man". The tonearm (3012) he sent me did not come with a serial number. $2,613 for a tonearm without a serial number does not seem like a fair deal at all. |
When you call Alfred he is most likely to be the one answering,
from what I can tell he enjoy's the banter.
|
@vinny55 Yes I,m sure he is. I just corresponded by email with him a couple of weeks ago about the serial number of the arm I bought from him in January. I would just pick up the phone and give him a call, I spoke with him twice over the phone and had good conversations and advice from him.I think he also has an ebay store. Good luck! |
@cardani so Alfred is still around |
So is Alfred still around? |
Yes I,m very happy with the sound; before this I had a borrowed Micro Seiki 505 arm for a couple of months on a recenlty aquiered Technics Sp10 Mk2. The Micro Seiki arm had its original internal wire and I was using a Audioquest amazon silver phono cable. The Sme 3009 with the single run of cable from Headshell/Cart to the RCA's ( Cardas 33awg OFC ) is so much better in low level details and dynamics, and I have not even installed the SME Fd200 fluid damper kit on the arm. Same Headshell and Cartridge used int this comparasion. I think is not the diifrence in the type of cable but just the fact that there is no joint or middle conector in the way of the signal. |
Cardani: You bring up a good question about the act of running a single run of cable from Headshell/Cart to the RCA's. The Question for all is what do you think of this set up. Has anyone registered it a success? Are you happy with the sound? |
No idea as this is my first SME 3009, but makes sense to me the single run of cable all the way to the RCA,s , you dont need an aditional phono cable. |
How much better does a refurbed sme 3009 arm sound than the original? Im looking for first generation 3009 tonearm |
Just bought a couple of months ago a refurbished 3009s2imp with his Cardas rewire from him. He was nice over the phone and had good comunication with him while the one month ordering period. The arm sounds great!, looks mint, but he forgot to put the cuing lever damping compund on it ( the lever goes down very fast), and to put a Y terminal on the ground wire ( just stripped wire). to be fair I didn,t even mentioned this back to him as I was not going to ship back the arm all the way from Mexico to Canada. |
|
As for Alfred he's a sales man when all is said and done. |
bimasta
Plus they’re not "foreign
Canadians, were more like cousins that have that currently great exchange rate! |
bimasta;
I called yesterday to Flat Earth Audio; this number is no longer in business. I'll try and email them but as far as I can tell they are the only ones listed as SME refurbishing in the USA, although I don't doubt there are many others; just not sure who and google comes up England, Germany.. |
I once used Flat Earth Audio (flatearthaudio.com). I got a new stub for a 3012's badly-sagging c'wt, and two grades of silicon, for a damping trough and cueing device — not easy to find. Super nice guy too, happy to talk tech with you — not a "time is money" guy at all.
The site says they went our of business — yet the site is still up and active, listing parts, rebuilt arms and other services. That’s really odd if they’re out of business, it costs money to keep a site up.
There’s a phone number and email-contact on the site, I’d check it out — maybe he’s still operating on a different basis.
Smetonearms’ prices seem extreme to me, capitalizing on scarcity, and Flat Earth had (maybe has) far more variety. Plus they’re not "foreign", so no issues there.
If you call, and he is still active in some form, please let us know. I hate to see a nice guy who does great work fail commercially — and I’ll definitely use him again, if it’s possible.
|
There is a guy in the UK doing great pickup arm work---Johnnie at Audio Origami. He does rewires using either Cardas copper or two different brands of silver (one being Kondo)., and has nothing but satisfied clients. |
He is a crook. I sent an arm to him years ago and he said he never got it. Then ended up selling it to someone. Its a small world. |
Only buy from his eBay listings as they are listed as new sealed in box with full warranty. If they come in any other condition, you'll have PayPal and eBay to help you with the return process. You'll be 100% protected. Once you get the tonearm, verify serial number and warranty directly with SME. They respond promptly and have fantastic customer service. 309 is listed at $2000 and IV at $2800. These are excellent prices.
|
Have you done a search? This topic has been posted and discussed before. Short answer; he does good work but on my vintage SME 3009 arm, when the problem with the cue lever could not be resolved, he stopped returning my messages and calls. He also hard-sold me on a forty year old NOS GAS moving magnet cartridge for $900 and refused to take no for an answer until I insisted he stop bringing it up. Overall, good and bad. |
Purchased an SME IV from them last year. A friend of mine had his SME 3009 S2 refurbished there. In both cases everything went smoothly, Alfred is a nice guy to deal with; highly recommended.
|
i had one restored by SME. They do a great job... i think a bit pricey but no one else specializes in vintage SME. It's a great arm if you are restoring an awesome vintage table. I used mine on a Thorens TD125 perfect match! |
