SME rewire

Anyone had experience with rewiring SME arms? In particular the 309/4/5 models. I understand the standard external cable is best replaced, but I wondered if the internal wiring also could do with replacing?

Cheers
JTB

 

As I understand it, the 309 has copper wiring, the 4 and 5 have silver, but both can be upgraded to, I think, another silver wire. Not my thing, and I'm sure that getting it done with a wire of your own choice would suit much better. Worth looking into as, despite what any tonearm manufacturer claims, the internal wire can always be bettered.

 

Hi
I am also considering a rewire of an SME 3009.
BTW I don't think the 1V had silver wire as standard.
From my research I don't think that the pure silver wire is suitable because it is not flexible enough and would add some unwanted bias correction. I am trying to source some silver plated copper litz wires at a reasonable price. They dont have to be colour coded as the tags can have colourd sleeves.
Have had a lot of bother ringing manufactures for advice because they don't sell small quantities and you have to specify exactly what you require or they treat you (me) like an idiot.Maybe!!

If you do rewire then get rid of the arm base and find a way of running continous wires to the final phone plugs. This will give the greatest sonic improvement.

 

My SME IV arm is wired internally with pure silver wire and this was requested to SME by the previous owner who bought it from new. This was at a time when the SME IV contained only copper internal wiring and probably still does. Btw, SME does not care much about wires (no difference between them, they might say) but might be able to rewire arms if the customer requires it. It's worth checking with them. I once heard a story of a guy who asked for his SME V to be wired internally with Siltech cable and SME oblidged though I am not sure how true that story was.

Anyway, I know that the guys that do the Incognito rewiring (also rewire SME arms.) The cable then becomes a single piece of wire from cartridge tags to phono stage. So no separate phono cable is required. I hope this helps.



Enjoy the music™

Lawrie

 

I've an older arm I'd love to get re-wired. From what I've heard, its a good idea to re-wire older arms as these small tonearm wires unavoidably oxidiize over time - don't know if this is true, but it would seem to make sense.

 

Shaq, it's true an old SME 3009 is likely to be well oxidised, mine was.

 

Recently got some wire from SME to do my 3009 Series III. Which is a bugger to do apparently. So I'm procrastinating slightly!

SME very helpful though, so I'd suggest flying them an e-mail.

'[email protected]'

 

I am in the middle of rewiring a 3009 fixed headshell model with cardas wire. It is 5 strand insulated wire and quite thick. I have drilled out the socket at the headshell end with a 4mm drill and hace coiled the wire inside the armtube slightly in order to give some slack when cartridge fitting and also to act as damping (the coils are fairly tight inside the tube. I will also coil the wire under the arm pillar, two wire clockwise and two anticlockwise in order to negate the stiffness in the wire - I don't want any spring tensioning to add any bias.
I bought a bronze bearing also - its fits perfectly except the fit is so good I can't lift the arm off the bearings as the flange on the bearing binds slightly with the underside of the yolk. A filing job!!
Will post the results soon.