SME Model 60 coming up, apparently

[Craig B]

@Tony L there was an article & interview with ARA in Hifi News about 20-25 years ago featuring the music room in the video, there was pics of the wall of naked ESL'S behind the curtains, I don't remember the electronics but I'm pretty sure he was using the Model 30a as his source.

Yes, another decade or two before that, ARA was running twin 3009 shod Technics DDs into über Luxman electronics and lots of stacked ESL57 both front and rear. I don't think this earlier interview/home listening room tour article ever made it online (was it Gramophone? If so, one would need a subscription to their digital archives.)

 

[notevenclose]

Yes, another decade or two before that, ARA was running twin 3009 shod Technics DDs into über Luxman electronics and lots of stacked ESL57 both front and rear. I don't think this earlier interview/home listening room tour article ever made it online (was it Gramophone? If so, one would need a subscription to their digital archives.)

I rather fancy it did. The power amps were Luxman M6000s IIRC and much was made of the re-inforced concrete ceiling as part of the 'room treatment.' I'm thinking HiFi News.

 

[Beobloke]

For that money, I think the Kronos is better looking.....

But at least with the SME you're not paying for a completely unnecessary second platter turning the wrong way.

 

[Craig B]

I rather fancy it did. The power amps were Luxman M6000s IIRC and much was made of the re-inforced concrete ceiling as part of the 'room treatment.' I'm thinking HiFi News.

Ah yes, it is coming back to me now (with the help of a second dose of caffeine). Something about the room being slightly trapezoid shaped, as well?

Another cuppa and I'll be shure to remember the phono cartridges.

 

[John R]

LP12 guru Derek Jenkins was impressed with the Kronos though!

 

[Sue Pertwee-Tyr]

But at least with the SME you're not paying for a completely unnecessary second platter turning the wrong way.

I've heard the Kronos without the second platter turning and it sounds different, and not as good. So it's doing something, but for the life of me I can't think what!

 

[wylton]

Does it even matter what SME do these days?

 

[Craig B]

I've heard the Kronos without the second platter turning and it sounds different, and not as good. So it's doing something, but for the life of me I can't think what!

The youngest son of uranus? Up to all kinds of shite since having been dethroned (by Zeus), no doubt.

 

[Tony L]

Does it even matter what SME do these days?

Given they no longer sell individual tonearms, probably not. The vintage tonearm designs will always be their/A R-A’s legacy, and this past will always be just so much more significant than the present. Say ‘SME’ to someone and some version of 3009, 3012, Series III, IV or V comes to mind. The 3009 and 3012 were ground-breaking products that must have looked like they were beamed-in from the future back when the first version was released in 1959. They quite literally defined the future of tonearm design, and then the SME V did similar 25 or so years later. I can’t see history caring if a PSU transformer is stuck in a different box on a £50k turntable, or that it has a cosmetic CNC-cut honeycomb patten cut into its finish. I view their getting out of the tonearm market as a catastrophic error.

 

[InSides]

So it's doing something, but for the life of me I can't think what!

According to their marketing, apparently it's sole purpose is balancing out the suspension which is out of whack due to the pull of the main platter (and the single motor).

 

[waxkinglyrical]

I like the design, in an era of grossly over engineered tables this is relatively restrained, much less keen on the estimated price though.

Don’t really see it as being similar to the VPI, but much more like the van den Hul Point One, Tourbillon and Nagra tables. Haven’t heard much belly aching over the €170,000 of the latter...
As for SME losing their direction can’t go with that either: the 30 and 20 share a lot, the 10, 15 and Synergy are different again, the 6 looks like an oddity but have never heard one.
From what I have seen, the grey/black and all black are the best looking. The incised blue finish is almost a nod to the AMG Viella Forte is a misstep and will add nothing.

The motor controller appears agricultural, especially when you consider the Brinkmann Taurus or the touch controls on a Thales deck.

The VA tonearm looks to be a refinement over the V, shame that the company has shackled purchase alongside turntable ownership.

The Robertson-Aikman period is over, done and dusted.

 

[sq225917]

Two counter rotating objects on the same axis produced a torque vector that rotates about the effective COM. It does anything but stabilise the suspension, it pushes the top one way and the bottom the other way.

 

[InSides]

Well I did add the "according to their marketing" caveat.

 

[sq225917]

To be fair I'd imagine the scale of the effect is next to nothing once in motion.

 

[Birdseed007]

Like many I was saddened by SME stopping the sales of tonearms direct to the public, indeed it pushed me into buying the SME IV I had long coveted while I still could. There were very sound reasons for it though. SME had a number of distributors throughout the world who manufacture their own turntables who were fitting SME arms to them and just selling a token SME turntable or two in their territory to fulfill their contractual obligations. SME became quite naturally fed up of being a supplier of arms to other peoples turntables while their sales of turntables languished in certain territories. Eventually they called a distributor meeting and told them they would no longer supply arms alone.

The result of all this was soaring turntable sales for SME, so I think it made sense for them.

As for the Model 60, it offers a number of refinements and improvements over the already world class Model 30 and when I saw it on Saturday at the launch was clearly a stunning piece of British engineering. To these eyes it has much cleaner lines than the 30 and will be more domestically acceptable in the beautiful homes it will likely inhabit. The sound was out of this world too with the usual caveat of unfamiliar room and system.

Expect my full write up on Soundstage! imminently.

Birdseed

 

[chris@panteg]

£60k?

That's a snip if you're one of Rishi's pals.

 

[BlueYeti]

I've just watched the Michael Fremer video, and its quite interesting, where the engineering on display is very impressive, especially the new tonearm. I'm not that familiar with SME decks and how the isolation works, but I was rather surprised to see how much the overall suspension design revolves around the use of multiple O-rings.

 

[eevo1969]

I quite like it. The ’pillars’ are hopefully function over form and do serve a real purpose.
I never liked the visible elastic band suspension.

 

[sq225917]

The engineering is first order, but they need the services of a good product designer to make it visually cohesive.

Is the honeycomb pattern a weak nod towards them making the Keel for linn?

 

[poco a poco]

I was impressed by the quality of engineering and quality control despite the design. I would have some doubts though about the ease of ongoing maintenance. I believe a number of 20 and 30 users have had to replace at least some of the O rings on their turntables at some point in time. This looks reasonably easy on a 20 or 30, but looking at the video much more difficult for the enclosed O rings in the new supports, especially the new one for horizontal isolation. Still I suppose if you can afford £50K+ for the turntable you can also afford the cost of getting s trained dealer into to do it?

I have the HiFi News article on the SME Alistair Robert-Aikman listening room somewhere, but it doesn’t seem to be available online. As I remember at the time of the article he was using an Audio Research SP11 preamp feeding Krell power amps. The Naked Quad ESL63’s behind the curtain were heavily modified with large heavy metal bars adding mass. They were not stacked, but there were two 63’s for left and right channel either side and the inner one was at a right angle to the forward one.

Stereophile article obituary for ARA with a mention of the amplification:
https://www.stereophile.com/news/110606ara/index.html