Elastic Coupling for SME tonearms

[jls001]

Has any one used elastic coupling to replace the rubber coupling between the arm tube and counterweight tube in SME arms? Any sonic improvements?

Elastic coupling SME 3009 & 3012 tonearm solid Teflon | eBay

 

[stevieboy]

Joshua,

Apparently the old school thinking was a more compliant coupling (soft rubber). Newer thinking is towards a more rigid one, so the elastic one might sound different, perhaps more modern but might lose some of that relaxed SME charm...?

regards

 

[jls001]

Apparently the old school thinking was a more compliant coupling (soft rubber). Newer thinking is towards a more rigid one, so the elastic one might sound different, perhaps more modern but might lose some of that relaxed SME charm...?

I am buying from this seller [http://www.goldenageaudio.com.au] bias weight, bias weight guide and rider weight for my 3009 (non-improved). Now that my biggest headache (idler wheel) is winging its way home, let me listen to how the stock arm sounds. BTW, the arm has the Cardas tonearm wire but has pathetic soldering on the pivot end (into a pair of Cardas female RCAs), probably with wrong polarities. I will have to redo it though I hate soldering very fine wires.

If you look at Origin Live structural upgrades to Rega arms, a more rigid coupling is one of the highly touted mods.

 

[stevieboy]

Ah, I've seen their ebay auctions for the counterweights and stuff. There you go. The Origin Live mod recommendation should tell you the story. Their arms and SMEs are quite different from all that I've read. The OLs are lively and dynamic, the SMEs are relaxed old world gentlemen. Would be interesting to see how it affects the sound...

If you want to upgrade to a one piece tonearm wire let me know I'll send you the email of the guy I got my Cardas wire from. He did a brilliant job. For your existing wire, get a good audio repair guy to do it.

regards