All things vinyl

In the world of high-fidelity vinyl playback, few components are as iconic as the SME 3009 Series II Improved tonearm. Built with exquisite British engineering and used on everything from Linn LP12s to Thorens TD160s, it was long considered the gold standard of tonearms in the 1970s and early 80s. But as technology and materials have evolved, so too have modern tonearms, many of which now outperform older designs in specific areas — especially when paired with modern moving coil (MC) cartridges.

Modern arms tend to be straight rather than curved, tapered to reduce resonant modes, and often constructed from...

If you've discovered the joys of analogue vinyl, chances are you're exploring how to get the best sound from your setup. Maybe you've swapped your stylus, upgraded your turntable mat, or even eyed a new cartridge. But there’s one invisible factor that affects every record you play — even if you’ve never heard of it: resonance.

More specifically, we're talking about the resonant frequency of your tonearm and cartridge. It’s a bit of science, a bit of engineering, and it can make the difference between your system sounding “muddy” or magical.

Okay all that’s left is to reassemble the plinth, chassis and faceplate. Oh, and yes, fit the mounting plate and the SME 3009 Series 2 improved tonearm. Lots of very knowledgeable people know much more about setting up a tonearm than I do so I don’t plan to cover this. With all due respect to Stevenson and LofgrenB, I prefer Bayerwald tracking for the SME. It just sounds more pleasing to my ear. The other options are equally valid.

Below is the oil damping device attached to the SME. It is...

Honestly, I wasn’t sure about this, I could have bought a new faceplate for between £100-150 depending on the colour. Silver was cheapest, Black, my preference the most expensive. But that would have been too easy, besides it wasn’t the brief for this refurb. That said the faceplate was as important as the platter. If it looked crap then the entire project would look cheap.

Could I convert the TD160 faceplate into a 160B style? The plan was give it a go and revert to plan b - buy a faceplate - if it...

The plan here was to absorb as much vibration as possible without affecting the outward look of the platter. This required some thinking outside of the box and honestly if it didn’t work as well as other methods, I would rather keep the ‘chrome’ look of the outer edge. That said I’ve used this technique before and it does make a significant difference to the sound quality, so I was confident it would do the same here.

Firstly, with the inner platter, I masked off the area where it comes into...