SM - SOME respected audiophiles (by which I assume you mean your friend and I am only aware of one other who made such a claim and that too was second hand) believe the SME outclasses the brinkmann. Many others beleive it does not, as evidenced by the number of sme 20 and 30 owners traded in for brinkmann. And none the other way round that I am aware of. I suggest you contact Les to verify that for yourself - or even better go and take a listen and make up your own mind.  Many others have also pointed out the sme decks do not play rock as well as classical something that is borne out by my experience. In addition it was not your opinion and not your subjective experience, it was someone elses. You werent there so you dont really know - no matter how much you trust your friend it is still hearsay.  I have direct experience of both products and to me the BL totally outclasses the SME. No matter how much you trust your friend my opinion is every bit as valid as his. Two people can listen to the same hifi kit even if it is properly set up and reach entirely different conclusions. Doubtless you will have something to say on that topic but your opinion is somewhat biased as he is your friend. I am sure the sme is a great product and that many people will prefer it to the BL, however for my tastes on my music collection the BL was a far better all rounder and the difference on rock was of a very large magnitude.  I raised the issue of the isolation of the BL as it was moot to the thread topic and because I had previously heard of a US dealer who was not demming the BL on air suspended supports. Consequently it was reasonable for me to ask and it is something worth bearing in mind - hifi is full of little wrinkles like this. If this issue was addressed (and I dont know enough about arcici to say whether it was) and your friend still preferred the sme then fine, he made the right choice for him.  But casting aspersions on the transparency of my system for the purpose of undermining my opinion is equally wishful thinking, and in the absence of any evidence whatsoever or any argument why that might be the case. I beleive the sme and arm come fitted from sme so the only setup issue could be the cartridge - which is usually very obvious during the dem. If you have a particular issue to suggest that might account for the observed performance of the sme then go right ahead. The cartridge was a lyra helikon, which I have heard on a number of decks.

Anyway this part of discussion has no real relevance to the thread and isnt really going anywhere it being of the form x versus y so I suggest you PM me privately if you wish to continue this discussion as it is effectively a two way conversation anyway and I cant beleive anyone else is remotely interested in reading it. I am not even sure I am .

The technical argument concerns the use of air suspension for non-suspended decks and is perfectly valid - it is also borne out by experience. Neither you nor you friend have compared the effect of swapping the support type for the BL and I have yet to see any techncial argument that might be acceptable in the abscence of experience.

I also look forward to hearing the WTR as well as the Steelhead. I didnt go crazy over the spectral amps however. I preferred the plinius in comparison.