Thanks Lee, Olly for the feedback, sorry for the tardy response. I am awaiting return of the unit from the Soundsmith so I can crack the cover myself and guage the situation. I will, at that time, be able to take some pictures and provide addtional information. I had good success recently repairing a Beogram 8000 so this hopefully will be managable

I recently received bad news form the Soundsmith that a lifting component within the tonearm assembly of my 5000 could not be repaired. They suggested possibly replacing it (they didn't want to tackle that) or cannibalize a unit or two and re-build around a functioning tonearm assembly. Any thoughts on a better option? This unit was sold as NOS