SP10 MK3 recommendation

Dear Peterayer: Your comparison on the V-12 against the V is not exactly: apples against apples. The V12 internal wiring is different to the V as is the tonearm bearing and the arm wand to stay with an almost similar effective mass as the V: 12grs against 11grs.

IMHO the diferences you heard are coming from a different build design, even that looks similar externally, more than the 12" length per se against the 9".

In amedium like the analog LP the tonearm has to deal with the reality of non perfect LP: warps and off center LPs and this is the day by day tonearm works in each single LP through all the LP tracks.
Well, the 12" are in disadvantages against the shorter ones that has a faster response to warps and off center problems, the 12" has slower response for deal with those LP problems and that means higher distortions/colorations.

Maybe your 12" tonearm could be better than your 9" one but IMHO not because its length but because a better design and execution design.

Regards and enjoy the music,
R.

Raul, With all due respect, you are wrong about the SME bearings and wiring. As Riccardo Muti said, " CON ME, NO!" A very good friend of mine was a close associate of the late Alastair Roberson-Aikman, the founder of SME. As such he has intimate knowledge of the SME products and their technology. He owns an SME 30 with V arm and an SME 30/12 with V-12 arm. He has had the 30 for 19 years. He told me this morning that the bearings in the V-series arms changed about ten years ago, and today, the bearings in the standard V and the V-12 arms are the exact same. The internal wire in the V series changed also around that time and today, the current V and V-12 arms have the same internal wiring. My SME V and V-12 are both current models, though I just sold the former. Of course the arm wand is longer and therefore different, and this is accounted for by the greater effective mass.

I can not tell you what is responsible for the difference in sound that I heard between the V and the V-12, but geometry would seem to be the biggest change. The position of the counterweight is closer to the pivot on the V-12, so that reduction in the moment of inertia may play a role. What I hear is less distortion, a cleaner, smoother sound, larger soundstage, slightly greater frequency extension and an overall more realistic presentation. This was confirmed by some friends who also heard the comparison. The SME site does claim a 27% reduction in tracking error with the longer arm, though this is I think based on the SME 312S arm.

I don't know of other 9" and 12" arms from the same manufacturer that are so similar to each other as the SME V series arms are, though there may be some. I think that directly comparing these arms and hearing the results speak for themselves. We can each decide for ourselves. Over time the audiophile community will see if the current popularity of the 12" arms are simply a fad as you suggest.

Are you sure your Sony PUA-237 will outperform the V-12? I don't think either of us has actually heard that comparison, so I will not make any such claims. I also will not make any claims about other 12" arms that I have not heard. I think a few Audiogon members are getting ready to compare the new 12" Triplanar, 12" Phantom Elite and SME V12. That should make for some interesting listening and discussion.

Dear Peterayer: These are the SME numbers on tracking error:

for the V12 Maximum tracking error 0.009°/mm

for the V " " " " " 0.012 degrees x mm.

I took the values from the SME site.

Now, do you think that you or any one can hear for sure the difference on quality performance between the V12 and the V where the difference in tracking error in between is only:

0.003 deggrees per mm. ?!?!?!?!?!

IMHO no one can't and not only that: I think no one audio system has the resolution to do it.

In the other side: how do you know that any performance difference came from that: 0.003 mm????

In the other side, I can asure you that even on the tonearm/cartridge set up that 0.003° is higher than it, so why to argue on something that we can get even in the cartridge/tonearm set up?

Btw, do you want to try/test a 9" tonearm that outperform almost any 12" tonearm?, well buy the vintage Sony PUA-237 that you could find out on the net for less than 500.00. Test it and then share with us your experiences about.

12" tonearms and longer ( everything the same. ) makes more harm than good to the quality performance level in any audio system. There is no perfect tonearms, every one has its own trade-offs and IMHO the 12" ones trade-offs are " ofensive " in higher way to the music reproduction than the shorter ones.

Any one can do what any one want it. You can followed the wrong/commercial AHEE advise or follow what your brain and common sense dictate in favor of the music.

Regards and enjoy the music,
R.

Please read the SME site and the V12 reviews.

First than all I posted " almost any 12" ". Never mind, try to find out the Sony-PUA237, test it against your V12 and if does not beats it then I buy your Sony.

Raul.

Albert undoubtedly had a finely tuned setup. I would use whatever he used if possible or if not possible ask him for alternatives along with pluses and minuses of each.