Service and repair
These nice SME 312 came in defective condition own my workbench. The internal tonearm wire was broken und the adjustment was lousy. The tonearm got a full service a new internal wiring directly from the cartridge clips to the 5 pin connector. After a new precise adjustment, the tonearm sounds again with an outstanding perfomance.
This SME 3012 Series 2 came from Asia to my workshop, here are the pictures after the service. The tonearm received a new counterweight according to original specifications for heavy cartridges such as the Ortofon SPU and a complete service including new internal wiring with Pure Silver Hair Wire and RCA Conversion Kit. For tonearm wiring Pure Silver Hair Wire was used and the RCA Conversion Kit was installed for easier and better connection.
Few month ago I serviced and upgrade these wonderful SME 3012-R PRO. These tonearm is very seldom and comes from a limited edition for the asian market. The serial number of these tonearm is #64. The tonearm got a new internal wiring from Pure Silver Hair Wire and a directly connected Pure Silver Ultimate phono cable and the bronze upgrades of course.
Here is a 401 motor from our workshop an example for the overhaul of a Garrard. The motor was completely overhauled and cleaned, the Continue reading Reconditioned Garrard 401 motor
Here is another example for a converting the light weight SME 3009 S2 imprived to a mid-weight-tonearm. The antiskating function is also upgraded to compensate tracking forces up to 5 grams.
Some time ago I reconditioned these nice vintage Ortofon RMG 309 for Jonathan Weiss of Oswaldsmill Audio, USA. The arm rest is an own design and handcraft which I made for the vintage Ortofon tonearms.
Some customers ask often for a better tool to adjust the SME tonearms. I offer since years these precision screw driver. It´s made in Germany.
I got this beautiful tonearm two months ago in a dusty and broken state for repair. One of the main problems were the most required spare parts in black, these were from SME specially made because only silver parts are available for this tonearm as standard. After the repair, it is a real beauty , he looks even more beautiful in real than in the picture. It is a very rare tonearm, I had several hundred SME tonearms in the last years in my workshop, but only a handful of the SME 3012-R in black.
These Ortofon RMG309i tonearm comes in a dirty and not great condition, after a intensiv cleaing and the professional service it looks and works perfectly again. The new internal tonearm wire (Pure Silver Hair Wire) and the refurbishing and precise adjustment of the bearings brought a significant improvement in performance.
That´s a new headshell prototype made from aluminium-titanium-alloy. The weight of these solid headshell is with 16,2 grams a little bit higher, but just right for the SME 3009/3012 tonearms. It has a flat geometry matched to install flat cartridges like a Denon DL103.