4johng

Hi , Yes, mine is the Improved version. The S2 designates that it has a detachable headshell and only the improved version was called the S2. The early 3009 which had the metal Knife bearing as standard , only came in the form of the detachable headshell, and had a mid to high effective mass as standard.

The Denon dl103 has a compliance of 5 x 10 at 100 hz , this equates to a lot higher at 10 hz but not quite a factor of two (maybe around 7 or 8 ) If you replace the Plastic bearing on the SME 3009 S2 with modded Brass version like I have , and use a detachable head shell which Maplins sell ,(which is 2 .5 Grms heavier than the SME original ) . The overall mass of the arm (If you use the medium large balance wieght 1902/MWR (135 grms)) increases to close on 14 grms, . The cartridge and headshell alone weighs in at 19.5 grams .The original SME S2 is always quoted incorrectly on most sites, the correct arm mass value in the published SME 3009 S2 manual for the detachable version is 12.5 grms. My SME 3009 S2 modded in this way with the Denon DL 103 Tracks brilliantly all the HI fi world Test tracks (new version album) Including the Last torture track , with just a slight ickup on the left channel. The horizontal compliance comes in at 10 Hz and the vertical just under at 9 Hz. THe arm and cartridge sounds fantastic to say they are both over 30 yrs old .