We expect contact within 3 working days (ebay rules, not ours) or otherwise We reserve the right to relist the item or offer to the next highest bidder. We accept cash on collection, bank transfers and Paypal. Winning bidders paying by Paypal will have to have signed for delivery. The winning bidder will be sent an invoice with the exact price shortly after auction end. We can send this item anywhere in the World at the winning bidders expense.Starting at only £0.99, someone may well get a bargain.I can never know exactly what the costs will be to post this items abroad as I do not know what country the winning bidder may be from, so we have estimated the cost to most European countries at around 18 GBP. Not as good as the famous Shure V15/III, but a close match and a wonderful rich sounding cartridge.Will be carefully packaged for safe delivery.Lots of high quality pictures at the foot of the text. If it bothers the winner I think SME may have a gasket or whatever it needs, but its never bothered me as I gently lower the arm anyway.I decided to leave a Shure M95ED cartridge in situ. My one is the same and this often happens to these early tonearms. I can change this to phono plugs for the lucky winner if desired.The arm lowering device appears to have lost a little oil. This arm was used with a Quad 33 pre amplifier, so still has the 5 pin din plug fitted to the arm lead. Not much difference between these and the SME 3012 IMHO, and this tonearm.Supplied with unused protractor as well as an SME booklet and new rubber bushes. I use the same version as this myself on my own Garrard 301, the only difference being mine is the SME 12 inch version. It even has the extra rider weight that would be required for such a heavy cartridge.
Here we have a very early SME 3009 series 2 tonearm that is the highly desireable split weight version that was often used with the famous Ortofon SPU cartridges. Pity.Stunning SME 3009 tonearm & Shure M95ED. In short I think it is a very sad day for analogue hifi and very misguided decision on SME. I think it is also counterproductive for SME themselves, I bought my SME table only after first buying their arms and deciding afterwards to purchase their table, it would not have happened if I did not have the SME IV in my possession first. I also pity the manufacturers that made armboards for SME like Linn with its Kore and others like Avid who machined theirs for SME arms. I always used to enjoy listening to different tables like Avid and Oracle with SME mounted arms as it allowed me to not only gauge the table with an arm I am familiar with but made a potential purchase that much easier because I had one I could use.
Only one of the arms is mounted on an SME table the others are on different tables. I own three of their arms that I bought new on sale at ridiculously low prices several years ago 2 SME IV's and an M2-9, which I got from Audiogon new in the box for very little. This is a silly and counterproductive decision. I can think of more than a few that will be scrambling to find a worthy replacement!-MF In other words, SME will continue manufacturing its arms for its own turntables but will no longer sell arms at retail or to other turntable manufacturers.
Factory service and spare parts support for tonearm owners will continue. Whilst no new orders for individual tonearms will be accepted from the issue date of this product announcement, all obligations of the warranty will be honoured. This tradition of tonearm manufacturing will continue with the manufacture of our highly accredited tonearms for the purpose of coupling with our comprehensive range of high-end precision turntables in which SME will be expanding in 2020. SME has designed, engineered and manufactured tonearms for retail and OEM sales since 1959 and achieved international recognition as makers of the best pick-up arms in the world. The growth of our turntable business and commitment to higher production levels means that we cannot continue both streams. The decision to leave the tonearm business was not taken lightly, especially as we have played a key role in the design and development of the world’s best tonearms. SME will exit the tonearm retail and OEM business with immediate effect shifting our focus on our core turntable and tonearm combination business.