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No more SME arms!

Decameron.. the service cost just under £700 including postage, I was only without it for 3 days and it came back to me looking like a new arm. I only paid £500 for mine 'lightly used' in the late 80's so in the price context of a new one I thought the service was worth doing.
Cheers,
I did this about 10 years ago and it was £500 ( “Extra Service”) so £700 is pretty good vfm. I wonder if the new owners will hike the price on it!
 
I think the Linn arms are quite archaic in design, not much changed since the 80's the current Ekos SE height adjustment is a bit old school, surely there's a better way to do this,( look at Michell) and those marks the grub screw leaves on the arm pillar on a 4k arm, truly shocking IMO.
That's inexcusable when a ball bearing between screw and arm pillar would stop any damage.
 
I wonder if SME will supply arms to Loricraft for their repairs/refurbishments.
SME now owns Loricraft, but I know it’s still a separate operation in many respects.
 
Loricraft is no more. SME bought it to get their Garrard spares and the Garrard name. SME are releasing a 301 in a Loricraft-style plinth and M2-12R for £20k or so, the model doing the review rounds appears to be a proper 301 built from that Loricraft spares stock, though apparently SME do plan to tool-up and make them again. I’d personally be surprised if there was that much market at that price considering you can get a nice tidy restored original 301 for about a tenth of that, but the ultra-high-end audio market plays by its own rules these days. Apparently SME will not be making their 301 available as a chassis unit, the only way to get one is to but the full deck/plinth/arm package. The thing that surprises me most is there is talk that they are doing it properly, i.e. casting the parts just as Garrard did rather than CNC cutting them from solid. I’m surprised that is financially viable given the price structure and likely production volume. From its introduction in 1954 Garrard were making 7000 301s a year for well over a decade, my guess is SME will sell rather less!
 
So sad to hear this - I had a IV and a V (on PT decks) and they were both marvels of engineering - quite something to see especially 20+ years ago when the fit/finish of the competition was so far behind. Very hard to see how they can't make money on selling them separately any longer. Anyway, there are still many about s/h so as long as they service them......
 
Loricraft is no more. SME bought it to get their Garrard spares and the Garrard name. SME are releasing a 301 in a Loricraft-style plinth and M2-12R for £20k or so, the model doing the review rounds appears to be a proper 301 built from that Loricraft spares stock, though apparently SME do plan to tool-up and make them again. I’d personally be surprised if there was that much market at that price considering you can get a nice tidy restored original 301 for about a tenth of that, but the ultra-high-end audio market plays by its own rules these days. Apparently SME will not be making their 301 available as a chassis unit, the only way to get one is to but the full deck/plinth/arm package. The thing that surprises me most is there is talk that they are doing it properly, i.e. casting the parts just as Garrard did rather than CNC cutting them from solid. I’m surprised that is financially viable given the price structure and likely production volume. From its introduction in 1954 Garrard were making 7000 301s a year for well over a decade, my guess is SME will sell rather less!

Which begs the question, how can there be enough money in a project such as that 301 you mention, and not in knocking out 5 grand arms you're already tooled up for? Even if you don't sell a lot of arms the production costs can't be much compared with having to claw back whatever this new 301 costs to develop.
 
This sounds like commercial sabotage!! ... surely it would've been better to simply build arms to order and inform customers of the lead-in time? Most would be chuffed to know its a bespoke build especially for them!!

The current TT revival (in the mainstream) is just a fad. the hardcore will always be out there and they are the ones who spend real monies. Doubt in 50 years time there will be many/any TT users left at all.
 
Its obvious isnt it? They looked at the sales figures, looked at the costs and said F**k it, not worth doing anymore.
Its only commercial suicide when there is commerce to be done.
 
I'd suggest its all bluster, new marketing manager not hit his targets for new owners , comes up with daft idea to halt production and all of a sudden google hits go through the roof and there's a bit of panic buying.

Next spring/summer back to normal supplies , as you were, nothing to see here...

The 301 project is vanity project I don't get. CTC already manufactures a "new" 301, everything new except the motor clams and I suspect theres a DC motor solution around (Look at the Peak idler TT)
 
Internet profiteers will be scouring every forum classifieds and eBay as I type in the hope of rocketing used prices in the future.

I’ve seen a few arms sold since yesterday that have sat for ages.
 
Definately some new investment idea for the far east (LS3/5a etc) collectors

Will they hoover the market resulting in crazy prices ?
 
Got a couple of series 3 that I like a lot with "classic" ( or is that vintage ol crap?) high compliance MM carts. Bought a IV a few years back -it languished on the local Craig's List forever - because it was mounted on a technics SL-1200 mk2. Have never understood this - allow 14 cents for TT value -arms are cheaper in the USA when sold with TT's ? Not ALL the time-just frequently ? I had set up a V for a customer about 33 ? 34? years ago and was simply blown away by the install/align process -I wanted one bad. Never found a V at a price I could afford -but this IV (old model) with a Ortofon Quintet Black S makes good music. And no -I have no idea why the new owners have done this - at least we can be confident the new management at SME is completely clueless when it comes to marketing audio gear.
 
Internet profiteers will be scouring every forum classifieds and eBay as I type in the hope of rocketing used prices in the future.

I’ve seen a few arms sold since yesterday that have sat for ages.
Ask Mik what he thinks about it, that's an opinion I'd like to hear.

I spoke with him yesterday, I purchased a new series V-12. I am sure he is going to be very popular,as he has to be the only go to place for Sme especially for rare hard to find models. Interesting to see what happens to prices in the long run.
 
SME bought Garrard. It should be obvious where the M2s will end up.

The Cadence Group (an Indian company) brought both SME and Garrard as well as Loricraft because Loricraft had the rights to use the Garrard name from Gradiente. I also believe Cadence have now purchased the Garrard name from Gradiente in Brazil.
 


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