Hello,

Thought I would write my thoughts here also.

1.) the 33/45 speed, it is servo-controlled or? did not find a pitchtune screw?, unless at the bottom of the BG there are twoscrew holes marked 33 and 45,What are these for? setting speed or tonearm movement?

2.) Found the trackingforce adjustment, but not been able to test it as the BG lacks cartridge, this doesnt need to be calibrated?

3.) A groundwire is not necessary anymore? compared to BG1203 that needs one wire to the chassi also, adding a ground wire to the BG 3000 chassi only generates more hum.

4.) Still waiting for my Soundsmith-wonder how long it can take?Some member spoke of two weeks mines been on its way one week now-the payment however was made at purchase.Also no reply from soundsmith, maybe they have to much to do at the moment?

5.) Removing cartridge from the BG 3000 seems a quite a job to do compared to BG1203, it seems I need to invest in a disc washer!

Will post photos from intresting project once it is done.

1. Speed is controlled automatically. The Beogram weighs the record and adjusts the speed accordingly after deciding whether it is 7" or 12", can be annoying when playing a 12" single as it will start at 33 rpm and you have to then press 45 for the correct speed. The 2 holes underneath are to adjust the 45/33 pre-set speeds, no need to touch these unless the beogram is running too fast/slow.

2. Set the tracking force according to the cartridge you get. MMC5 - 1.5g. MMC3&4 - 1.2g. MMC1&2 - 1.0g.

3. No ground wire needed if connecting to a B&O amp.

4. SoundSmith do take a while to supply as each cartridge is hand made. It will arrive (mine took about a month) and well worth the wait.

5. I don't quite understand what you mean here (disc washer comment????). The cartridge should simply pull off the end of the tonearm - vey easy to do.

Chris.

Thanks Chris!

this just about sums it up, apart from I dont have B&O amplifier -forgot to mention-sorry! I use an adapter and a DIN wire to get RCA plugs.But this point seems fine.

Regarding the pulling of the stylus it is more complicated (due to size!) as with the "bigger" ones (SP-range i.e) There is of course the alternative of carefully brushing the needle clean while still attached to the tonearm. 

Sound-smith cartridge -Wow a month! expect there is always a back-log or they are not really manufactured until there is an order.

1203:

Regarding the pulling of the stylus it is more complicated (due to size!) as with the "bigger" ones (SP-range i.e) There is of course the alternative of carefully brushing the needle clean while still attached to the tonearm. 

Sorry 1203 - I misunderstood you here. The stylus & cartridge don't come apart, they are an integrated item requiring the replacement of the whole unit.

Once you have attached your new cartridge to the tonearm it is recommended that you don't remove it unless you really have to. There is a weakness in the design (on the B&O originals but cannot say if the Soundsmith items are also prone) where constant removal & refitting can cause the pins to lose contact with the small coils in the cartridge body.

Chris.

Hello Chris,

ok, thanks for that piece of info once again (avoiding removing MMC4 from tonearm) .No I didnt mean pulling the stylus out of the MMC4 I currently have

Yesterday I was able to plug in the cartridge and  the system. It sounds really different from my BG1203. More CD-like I would say. In my opinion the tangential tracker deals with a few Vinyl type of problems better than the radial -for example warped records and records where the center is not tight enough or slightly to the side.This causes very audible "wow&flutter" on the radial, but the tangential smoothes these out quite nicely even though not removing them completely.Also the tracking on warped record seems more stable.

The tracking overall seems good with the MMC4, I have now set the tracking weight to 1,5grams, I will tonite try with 1,2g (which was the recommended tr.weight). Cant wait to fit the ordered SMMC4 must be a real treat then!

Hello,

Got smmc4 on Monday, the website says shipping within 15 days in my case it was 18  days.Still waiting for the whole cost of the cartridge since I dont have the customs clearance yet.Well anyway my findings:

1). The Smmc4 is on par with mmc4 or slightly better soundwise although I would have preferred some more accented top end- but I think Soundsmith wanted to make it sound like B&O, not like a CD, fair enough some people like that little less accented sound.

2.) Tracking is better than the mmc4 on difficult records maybe due to suspension being fresh.

3.)soundsmith has changed the color on the cartridge- it is now silver.Even the red dot on the stylus tip is there!

4) the transport box from soundsmith is superb+ the delicate needle brush!

I still have one small problem or Question, The channel balance is still not right, the left channel is slightly louder, is it the trackingforce/antiskating or is there something wrong with the tonearm? On the otherhand that means that my old mmc4 I got with the beogram is not necessarily faulty here, since the soundsmith is equally balanced.Its no big problem  as I can fix it with the pre-amp.

To sum everything up, the investment "upgrade"from BG1203 => BG3000 (tangential) was definitively worth the money, the upgrade from mmc4 => smmc4 was not a  very big improvement and maybe not worth the effort however a spare needle is always a spare. Finally a picture of the soundsmith coming out from the box!