It’s funny because some weeks ago @Dunc was a digital absolute sound afrocianados. And now he is beginning an expert in the vinyl world.
I like it, it’s not a criticism.
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It’s very reassuring to an old bugger like me, a little justification for ignoring the digital revolution for all these years 
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It seams quite a few V owners just remove the bridge part to get it 100% right, just 2 bolts to remove, or they do there best and try and get it right with the bridge in place
Well not quite right as i have had turntables for about 40 years, it was my main source till CD’S turned up, but as said, i do use a turntable and did use it much more when i had the NDS, its been since getting the Dcs, that i haven’t.
I had a rp6 for years and then jumped to a P8/apheta2 and then finally to the P10/apheta3, when it came out and finally added a aphelion2, but this couldn’t really still do it for me, and so still didn’t really use it at all.
Finally it has changed and really enjoying once again my vinyl.
It very nice to be in a position that i have 2 fantastic sounding sources battling for my attention, i just want to make sure that i have the sme, set up as best it can be, so it hopefully isn’t damaging my vinyl and stylus going forward, plus iam getting the best sound i can from it
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I wouldn’t do that. I’ve seen SME making the V and its torqued up pretty accurately. The SME guys just shake their heads at removing the bridge. They make their arms with great accuracy and care and then people just remove bits…
As Colin says the risk with the Smartractor is that you can’t place the SME’s pivot point exactly. And it needs to be exactly. My advice is to just order the MintLP and be done. When it comes just follow the SME V’s instructions to the letter (they are a model of clarity), start with SME protractor (which is good overall all) and use the Mint to dial-in the installation. Another tool that makes life easier is one of those clear perspex ‘VTA blocks’. Basically a piece of perspex with lines on it. You can get the arm horizontal very quickly that way - not that it makes that much difference.
There was a school of thought a few years ago that stated the SME V sounded better with that brace removed, I tried it but I couldn’t tell the difference at all, might be worth a go
As said I am just borrowing one, will see how it goes, i dont mind removing the bridge and can easily re torque it back as i have the kit to do that, but will try and do it all without removing it.
I am really enjoying the sound, but more curious to see if its set up right and only one real way to tell, the cardboard template is ok to get it close, but its not that precise and open to many different wrong settings.
So as i have been lucky enough to be able to borrow such a high precision tool to help dial it in, then i would be silly not to give it a go, as i can always just go back to the template if it all goes wrong
Looks fun , good luck and let us all know how your getting on please Dunc
Right just put it on and took a few pics, haven’t moved any thing
Set to loefgren A/baerwald IEC, which I believe is what sme use?
This is what I have, but the stylus went straight in the dent on the protractor.
Can’t believe how dirty the cartridge is when looking at it with the magnifier, ascit looks clean to the naked eye
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Oh, my goodness. Despite having set up cartridges on my own TTs over the years, I think that I might be driven to distraction by that arrangement. Happy with 3-point fixing in my old age!
Happy listening.
Trespassers William: Different Stars at the moment. Nice melodic and minimalist arrangements.
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Do you use something to clean the stylus? I use a special gel.
Got a gel pot, but didn’t use it
It’s very dirty 
I don’t think it’s far off, but the arm measurement is confusing me the most.
My cartridge has a 8mm from mounting hole to stylus tip, I believe
You can go to Steve Hoffman forum or Audiogon. A lot of SME users there. Personally I can’t help, I have never set up myself a cart 
Well I think if the pin is in the centre of the arm pivot and the stylus drops in the dent, then it’s pretty much set up.
Just need to align cartridge then up to the grid lines.
I got my daughter to take a much better look and actually the stylus tip isn’t quite in the dent, when the pin is 100% central, it’s a good 1 mm to long.
So got to slide the arm back a touch
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Well i certainly know more about cartridge alignment than i did 24 hours ago.
To start with it was set up using the cardboard sme template and to be fair to it, this gets you about 90 % there and is certainly a good place to start.
I believe the template is set up for lofgren A iec, and if so was only about 1mm out max to the smartractor, it didn’t obviously take much to adjust, so the stylus fell into the dent.
To be fair i couldn’t really tell any difference in sound at all and so decided to try a different set up completely.
Next up Uni din, this ment the sledge was moved backwards, so this increased the P2S by about 3mm, re set the weight so it matched as before, this did change the sound, it was more forward in vocals and high end instruments, cant say i liked it at all, but had a play, as the cartridge needed a very slight twist in the head to align up correctly to the lines, this didn’t really change it that much and i still didn’t like it.
So decided to go back to my first set up, this didnt take that long, but getting the cartridge alignment right as it was before did, it just wanted to go back to a slightly twisted once i did the screws up, finally got it right by over compensating for when i did the screws up, but wished i hadn’t move it now lol.
Anyway its sounding nice omce again.
But i am glad now that i didn’t splash out on a smartractor, as the standard template is actually not that bad, but also glad to have tried one, i guess if you have a few different cartridge’s or turntables then it would be worthwhile, but for me i am just going to keep what i have and guess just get it rebuild when it needs it.
So i may invest in a mint protractor, that is made for my turntable, arm and cartridge at some point in the future.
As long as anything didn’t get damaged it’s not hurt to have a play has it
It’s saved you some money in not having to get a posh alignment tool and now you know the cardboard one is near as it can get
Win win situation
Perhaps the most gorgeous looking turntable in the market. If only I had 16k euros…
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The sme template was as i said not bad, the smartractor showed how close it was, it wasn’t spot on, about 1mm out, so not bad, but no cigar, as they say.
But the template is open to much more guess work and it might have been more a lucky shot, than a actually scientific operation, but its spot on now for the one i have chosen to go with.
I might try another different setting on the protector, we will see.