Have the opportunity to buy an SME 309 arm from 2016 at a reasonable price(?) (Ā£1100) would this be a good buy? Donāt know anything about SME unfortunately 
The SMEs are beautifully made arms. If you are buying second-hand then, condition apart, itās worth finding out whether it comes complete with the box and all the accessories and templates as these can add up considerably otherwise if you need to buy replacements from SME.
Of course, the main question is what deck will you be partnering it with? If itās LP12 or similar then probably not the best match, but plenty of decks out there that will match it just fine.
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Agree Richard, they are really beautiful hence my curiosity. The arm has had the same owner since new, mounted on the same deck, fully functional and visually in mint condition with all accessories and packaging. I thought it could fit a Gyro or Orbe SE, would it be a good match do think? Or are there other decks that fit better?
Sold the Rega?
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The SME 309, IV and V work very well with a Gyro or Orbe turntable.
Some would say that the Orbe was designed with a SME V. Certainly until Michel launched its own arms, you always saw a Gyro or Orbe with a SME 309, IV or V in place at shows & on demonstration.
When I auditioned Gyro vs Orbe back in 2001, they had SMEs in place. I initially used the chosen Orbe (full plinth) with my existing Mission 774, before getting an SME V. And that has been it, it has been that since, 24 years later. No desire to change (or $, as an upgrade from this pair, is up in the SME Model 20, Avid Reference level budget).
So would recommend you to get the 309.
Which is a cut down IV, which in turn is a cut down V but still retains the basic design, arm tube, bearing assembly (the important bits).
Tolerances were not as high as the IV or V but still up there.
Plus the V is better paired with the Orbe, the 309/IV is perfect for the Gyro.
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Iām in agreement with @simon.pepper on this. The 309 is perfect for the Gyro, i wouldnāt pair with an Orbe or Orbe SE though. I have the Orbe SE paired with the V and itās a match made in heaven. I have a friend that has the Gyro SE and he also has a V paired with it, a bit of overkill maybe, but he got the V for a very good price.
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I think @JonathanG will have useful advice.
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It should match the Gyro or Orbe very nicely.
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Furthermore I think the V in Black is beautifully matched with the Orbe in black.
Whereas the IV and 309 which are silver go nicely with a Gryo or Orbe chassis in silver.
My Orbe with SME V
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Never really got that player sorted so my dealer is taking it back.
Due to quality issues you reported on?
Yes, when the PSU broke I got tired of the problems I was having with the player so he was kind enough to take it back.
Oh I see. I also had too many issues with Rega so I gave up like you.
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Hi Bjorn,
I agree with everything others have said here - the SME 309/IV/V are all superb arms which are ideally suited to Michell turntables. In fact itās a little known fact that when SME were designing the SME Series V they used the Michell GyroDec as their development mule! This of course pre-dated the launch of the SME Model 30 turntable around 1989 (if memory serves).
So at Ā£1100 I donāt think you could buy a better arm, thatās a great price for a mint boxed one. SMEās engineering is second to none and itās a huge loss to vinyl fans worldwide that they no longer supply their upper-tier arms to owners of other turntables - and Iāve told them that.
I moved from a Rega RB600 on my GyroDec to an SME IV after 20 years not really expecting a huge uplift in sound, but mainly because it was my dream arm and was what I would have fitted to the Gyro in the first place if finances had permitted. Oh boy was I in for a shock! The Series IV was a really large sonic uplift and offered significantly greater dynamics, massively more bass slam and extension and lower surface noise.
It also looks sexy as hell and those arms are just so utterly beautiful, theyāre like owning a fine swiss mechanical watch - the pride of ownership is off the scale and theyāre an absolute delight to use.
Hereās the post I wrote when I first fitted the SME:
Enjoy your new arm, the other thing you will come to appreciate is that SME donāt just make āthe best pick-up arm in the worldā but they also make the best instruction manuals in the world too!
JonathanG
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Good looking Arm and Turntable there.
I really think the 309/IV in the silver look great on a silver Gyro.
Have you tried different Arm cables?
I have the OEM VdH one in the box and had made a Harmonic Technologies Magic Reference cable. I shipped over to them a SME 90 degree plug, and they only normally offered this the cable with Furutech RCA plugs at both ends. Jim Wang (before he retired in 2006) made the cable, with earthing at both arm end and phono stage end, as per the SME OEM cable design.
They did offer this as a standard cable but only in Crystal Silver level & not the Magic Reference. He only charged me $800 and the time. 
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This is my Orbe SE paired with V, they just look and sound so ārightā together. In fact they have been ātogetherā a long long time, the Orbe is the original with the AC motor.
The internal cabling on the V is original although interconnects are Redline both to and from the phono stage.
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Thanks for your detailed answer Jonathan 
Unfortunately the opportunity slipped away from me as I was not aware of how desirable these arms are but at least now I know what to look out for in the future.
Sorry to hear that Bjorn, as you say they are now very desirable secondhand due to the fact SME will no longer sell them without a deck attached. Iām sure another one will come along though - perhaps even a Series IV which I think is the optimum arm for a silver Gyro.
One thing I learned last week was that apparently the Series IV and Series V have identical wiring - I had always heard that the Series V had some kind of higher-end wiring, but according to Ajay Shirke who I spent a very enjoyable day with last week thatās not the case.
In answer to the question about whether I have thought about arranging a rewire I must confess I havenāt done. Aside from the fact that I think SME know a whole lot more about tonearm wiring than I do, thereās also the fact that the Series IV and V were what I dreamt of owning when I was a teenager and if I start changing things, then I wonāt own the same arm that I so desired. I suppose Iām a bit traditional at heart. I feel the same way about Naim amplifiers, I have never had any interest in having them modded by any aftermarket people because I want them the way that Naim designed them. Thatās the sound I fell in love with, thatās the amplifier I coveted at 17 and I donāt really want anybody meddling with it other than Naim!
Perhaps an unconventional view, but in my experience there are a whole load of people promising they can enhance other peopleās designs by changing things, but is it an improvement or a sideways step?
I had no such problems adding Townshend supports to my racks or turntables, because theyāre not fundamentally changing the component, merely the environment they are in. I had more of a problem putting them under my ATC SCM40ās and removing the spikes because ATC designed those loudspeakers to be on spikes not floating on suspension. I was certain that the supports under the racks and turntable were a huge improvement though. It took me a while to be fully happy with them under the ATCās purely because there was less bass slam and warmth (although clearly more articulation). In the end I swapped back and forth a bit and also changed the speaker position (moving them closer to the rear wall with the podiums) and arrived at what I think is a genuine improvement. Theyāre massively more articulate now and more detailed and Iāve compensated for the reduced warmth by moving them closer to the wall which has resulted in a ābest of both worldsā result.
The key thing though is to trust your ears. Not every change is an improvement, no matter how much you might wish it to be. What I realised was that the āwarmthā and slam I liked so much was in fact the suspended floor being driven by the speakers! This was helpful when listening to tinny 80ās rock recordings, but was detrimental to everything else.
Everything is a compromise I guess!
JonathanG
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There is a SME V for sale with a company that specialise in 2nd hand hifi, they are asking Ā£2890.00.
A google search should find it.
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A search on a well known auction site finds it. That same search also finds a SME 20 deck with a V at Ā£3999 or best offer. Now, that is very good value for money but it dosnāt say how old it is. If bidding for this it would be good to keep in mind the Ā£900 cost to have the arm serviced.
I must admit, if i didnāt already have a deck and arm, i would be all over this auction.