Tracking error distortion audibility

Dear Axel, we do talk about the same thing.
However - there is a huge missinterpretation by several SME V owners.

On the whole sliding distance of the SME mount - some 25 - 40 mm - there is ONLY ONE POINT where the spindle - pivot bearing distance (=mounting distance) is exactly the 215.35 mm SME does specify.
The distance is always the same on a circle around a given fixed point (here: the spindle). The SME slide does not feature a circle segment, but a linear one.
I guess the point is clear now - isn't it??
The SME-mount was introduced in the 1950ies to allow precise alignment of the mounting distance even when the drilling of the wooden armboard was inprecise. The fact that the SME V does feature fixed cartridge mounting holes have been critiszed from the day of its introduction.
It is simply a big mistake in its design. If the horizontal distance mounting holes to stylus on all cartridges would be the same (as it should, but is not...) , then SME would be right. But in real world, the SME does not allow adjustment of overhang........ with a given cartridge you either get it right by simple luck - or you doesn't.
You can not adjust it.
Unfortunately cartridge designers do not stricly design there cartridges with a standardized distance mounting holes to stylus.

Again - yes, there is no overhang adjustment possible with the SME V......
Sorry - SME's fault.....
I know a few SME V owners who do indeed have modified their SME V so that now they do feature oblonged holes to mount the cartridge.
They can adjust the overhang now.
With a stock SME V you simply CANNOT adjust the overhang.
If you try by using the SME slide, your whole geometry goes nowehere.
Thus the SME V does limit your selection of useable cartridges quite a bit......

Holy moly, you are dead serious in what you are saying as I can read ---- BUT something does not gel at all.

1) SME adds a overhang template, with a machined bushing for the V! (it goes over the centre pin). Then you put your stylus into a tiny prick-holed template (marked by a cross) and adjust the overhang so that the arm geometry (arm is tapered, yes) aligns visually, from above with the template! There is a lengthy section in the manual just dealing with that and exactly how to do it (and how not to do it). Also the is a special key tool to do the sliding bit (nothing like hand moving here). All that just to get this micron exact point -- with NO gauge to support your idea? Sound pretty far out, now doesn't it?

2) There'd be NO means, other than some funky optical measuring equipment, maybe the latest for a tool-shop, that would be able to set the arm as you suggest.

3) Since there are precision holes (for cap screws) drilled and tapped into the ALU arm-board, they could be just fine and no pivot-post movement mechanism needed, just some oblong holes, right?

4) There seems to be a MAJOR discrepancy here with some other expert Forum members that maintain that the pivot to centre-pin distance is NOT of the ULTIMATE importance as I hear it from you.

5) If it really was, why would SME for the last 50 years maintain a pivot post slide on the "best tone arm in the world" (their words, not mine) It written on the box, believe it or not.

6) So, I guess I hear your argument loud and clear, but SME can't be the one to support it, rightly or wrongly... And I do NOT say: you don't have a point.

I got to digest that bit! Do some geometry to see if your argument is valid, though.

It may just turn out as yet another funky argument, like all the differing anti-skating, and dynamic VTF stuff.

I'm baffled, but thank you for sharing,
Axel

I don't see it either. I believe that you can adjust overhang, by moving the whole arm forward or aft. Unfortunately, what you cannot adjust is azimuth, as the fixed holes do not allow skewing the cartridge within the headshell. Fortunately, the SME arms with universal headshells allow you to select a headshell that has elongated holes and obviates this concern.

This discussion about the SME V arm and overhang adjustment is interesting and somewhat confusing. I had the same conversation with Yip of MINT LP. I had to supply the arm to spindle distance as specified by SME, the arm pivot distance to the center of the catridge mounting holes as specified by SME and most importantly, the mounting hole to stylus-tip distance as specified my my catridge manufacturer-Air Tight. This last was hard to get, but once I gave it to Yip, he made an arc-type protractor specific to my arm/cartridge combination and sent it to me. I realigned my cartridge which was off by about 2mm from using the SME alignment tools and adjusted the zenith and azimuth. I presume the new alignment is more accurate, because it sounds significantly better and under 10x magnification, the cantilever lines up with the tangent lines on the protractor.

I have found the SME V arm to be very inconvenient to adjust, but it sounds fine and it can be properly aligned. Though I still don't know if this is the source of your "tracking error distortion".

Honestly, - what I have described is not my opinion, but simply the physical fact and the geometry. You do not have to "believe" me or the "arguments" made. Please read the papers published in Audio Engineering Society Jopurnal during the 1950ies to 1990ies about tonearm geometry - these are the standards of tonearm geometry - nothing else. SME hoped that all cartridge designers would agree to a standard in horizontal distance between the mounting holes and teh stylus. If all cartridges would feature the very same distance there, everything would be fine.
They did not and still do not.
So any tonearm unable to adjust the overhang (with the spindle - bearing pivot distance (=mounting distance) of course a fixed value) has a big problem.

Please make a drawing on a sheet of paper - the visual manifestation will help to illustrate and clarify the point. It is impossible to adjust overhang by moving the whole tonearm !! Overhang is a value that DEPENDS on the geometry of the given tonearm !!! The geometry of ANY pivot tonearm has one foundation: the spindle-bearing distance (= mounting distance).
The whole calculation of its geometry roots in this value.
If you move the pivot of the bearing away from the specified value as given by the designer, the whole geometry of your tonearm is gone!
We are talking plain, 2-dimensional geometry only here - this is nothing that can be discussed in any way. It is fixed since about 2500 years when its foundations were displayed and described in ancient Greece (well, - and before in Egypt....).
Its not whether I am right or wrong - it is the physical and geometrical fact.
SME simply made a mistake in taking a specific value for granted (the distance between the mounting holes and the stylus being the same in all cartridges).