SME 2000 16" tonearm problem

Hello everyone,

After repeatedly switching an ortofon cartridge on this tonearm I lost the entire bottom half of the signal. I looked inside the connection with a flashlight and noticed at least one of the connections is recessed by a millimeter or two now. I tried using tweezers to unjam it but to no avail. Is there an easy resolution for this or will it have to be dismantled? I live in the Brooklyn, NY and would appreciate any info on anyone who would be able to fix this.

Thank you,

Tenyu Hamaki

Hi Tenyu,

Welcome to "The Lab"!

You may be in a wrong forum here - there is not much HiFi going on around here. Maybe you should also try diyaudio.com /Source /Analogue - http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/forumdisplay/f-11.html - they seem to be more into stuff like that..

But still someone may drop in here with an answer for you - there's quite a few audio diy'ers around here..

Best regards,

Jakob E.

Thanks for the reply,

I contacted SME services via email but have yet to hear back. I will try the forum you linked. Surely someone on the internet must know what needs to be done.

Hi,

Try these guys. They have helped me with two SME arms in the past.

http://www.flatearthaudio.com/

good luck,

Neil

boy it's a pain dealing with tone arm wiring because the little wires run inside the arm and can be tough to work on. make sure you have good connections where the wires come out of the tonearm underneath the turntable. this is where my problem was on the Thorens TD125 i bought. i made a new connector out of a tube socket.
cj

I have an SME 3012 monted on my lathe and a 3009 on my thorens TD125. I haven't had to fish any wires out of the arm. I'm in brooklyn and could take a look at it for you. Give me a call 718-788-5777

Flat Earth Audio were easy to deal with when I wanted a template to mount the 3009 on the thorens and the had the anti skate bead.

Thanks Paul!

I called Tomiko the sme tonearm distributor for the states and he said that it sounds like an electrical problem instead of mechanical. The 3 headshellf connections I tested on the tonearm end still have functioning springs. It's only one that's broken. Even with that there should be no reason for me to lose complete bandwidth on both channels, something doesn't add up. I have to check a different tt into my direct phono input to make sure there's no problem with that stage in the amp.

OH boy...

It was my amp!

unbelievable, I just spent $650 servicing my hh scott 299A not even 3 weeks ago and I just assumed they woulda checked everything. All the tubes still light up. I dunno what this could be then.

maybe the input selector switch.
the switch is the most failure prone component in electronics.
http://www.triodeel.com/299-c1.gif

Is there an easy way to find out?

I'm not an electrical engineer.