But we shall defer this to the end of the restoration process.
#Sme tonearm service manual install#
We still need to install some proper wires and connectors there. Removing the foil, we are left with a mess of glue to clean up, to restore this classic to proper standard. In any case, the "tin foil hat" tweak seen here is a very bad idea! Please do not do this to your poor tonearm! It works great as it is, if you are using a decent cartridge and do the wiring properly.
#Sme tonearm service manual professional#
The 3012, being a 12" arm, is obviously not designed with the lowest possible effective mass as an objective, but was instead offering the comfort of a removable headshell demanded by professional users. This contributes to a higher effective tonearm mass, due to the location of the connector being close to the tip. The SME 3012 features a removable headshell. Even better, soldered directly to the sockets of the Western Electric 437A tubes in the balanced Agnew Analog Reference Instruments Type 751 reference phonograph preamplifier, keeping wiring accurately balanced throughout. In fact, on the 3009 versions with non-removable headshell, it is possible and preferable to run twisted pairs, suitably screened, from the cartridge pins to the preamp, with no connectors or soldering in between. Our personal preference is no connector at all, with the tonearm wiring soldered directly to the interconnects, or even better, a continuous run of wire all the way to the preamplifier. This version came with the sliding screening can and 4-pins-in-series connector at the bottom, shown at the left.Īn alternative arrangement is the screening can on the right, with a pair of RCA connectors. It now operates smoothly and is a real pleasure to adjust. This system was completely jammed, but with our precision machine tools in our R&D laboratory, it was easy to machine the required replacement parts, in house. The most interesting features on this version of the 3012 are the leadscrew system for advancing the counterweight, along with the method of decoupling the counterweight assembly and adjusting lateral balance. As such, it was removed, carefully cleaned and disassembled for the repair and restoration to begin. The new owner of the Neumann lathe did not want to keep the tonearm, which was admittedly in a very poor state of neglect. It was found on a Neumann disk mastering lathe, a common application for the 3012, its length allowing it to reproduce disks from the massive 16" vacuum platter. This array of parts is an SME 3012, the bigger version of the 3009, from the period of Shure's involvement with SME. They are of course also capable of offering an intensely enjoyable, accurate listening experience, coupled with an accurate cartridge. These systems are excellent for Quality Control in vinyl record manufacturing, to ensure that any defects are caught early. We have used our restored SME tonearms on a large number of reference reproduction systems, for our own use and for our customers, such as the Thorens TD160 project which was presented here last February. This outstanding tonearm was first introduced in 1959, setting a standard for high performance tonearm design which is still hard to beat, 60 years later. Over the past few years, we have restored a number of SME 30 tonearms, covering most of their variants made over the impressively long production life span of this model range.
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