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SME Model 6

This is what happens when those with money, smell the making of even more money by using an established brand name. I would hope buyers will be aware that a name these days does not guaranteed you a thing of beauty or top performance. I wish the Hi-Fi world worked more like the car world does, in that if a car was shite or had something fundamentally poor (e.g. electric steering), the journalist would generally say so.

It would have been so much easier and more profitable for me 25 years ago, to have just brought or rented an established brand name, like Terry O'Sullivan did by renting the Garrard name.
In the 1960s Lambretta was a top Italian motorcycle scooter maker. Now it is a brand name making T-Shirts... :rolleyes:
 
I must admit I like it however, from the pictures, it appears that the SME arm on the SME turntable is not using the traditional SME mounting with a sliding bedplate. Given the headshell has holes, not slots, I wonder how you align the cartridge?
 
sq225917 said:
They should ditch the cheap ass mat, it looks like a Garrard mat knock off
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SME did buy the Garrard name recently, but it seems an expensive way to copy a mat.

I do wonder how many SME Garrard 301s have actually been sold and what (if anything) is to follow 501/601/701?
 
Yank said:
For which cartridge?
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Fair point! But, I see the two knurled screws on the base are still present. It's those screws that lock the arm base down onto the slide, so I am now guessing that there is some movement available. In theory, you'd not need more that 10/15mm to get any modern cartridge spot on. It's hard to see in the WHF pics. Maybe when SME publish some better launch images.
 
Beobloke said:
Loricraft already did the 501 and 601.
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Garrard originally did the 301, but SME have now done their version, adding many 000's to the price.....

Do we think SME will bring out a new 701 or such?

Or will they stick to the classic 301 versions on a remanufacture basis?
 
Stuart Frazer said:
SME have seemingly taken the decision to be (even more of) a niche/high end manufacturer towards the likes of Simon Yorke.
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It is not their choice but a necessity before the lights go out completely. Sure, there is a vinyl resurgence but is has very little to do with audiophilia. When the fad finally wears out, it is over for good.
 
Octavian said:
It is not their choice but a necessity before the lights go out completely. Sure, there is a vinyl resurgence but is has very little to do with audiophilia. When the fad finally wears out, it is over for good.
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SME must have done a reasonable amount of tonearm only sales. By restricting those sales to now only full SME Turntable packages means that those profits must now come from the SME Turntables. The vinyl replay market is relatively small already in the context of the bigger replay source picture. Normally, a business wants to open itself up to the biggest markets it can for sales, but SME have gone the other way and wants to be a smaller niche and deny many potential customers the choice of buying a new SME tonearm to use on their choice of deck. I don't think the lights will go out for many many years on vinyl replay equipment, but it might become a problem for SME Audio to survive in the market.
 
Stuart Frazer said:
SME must have done a reasonable amount of tonearm only sales. By restricting those sales to now only full SME Turntable packages means that those profits must now come from the SME Turntables. The vinyl replay market is relatively small already in the context of the bigger replay source picture. Normally, a business wants to open itself up to the biggest markets it can for sales, but SME have gone the other way and wants to be a smaller niche and deny many potential customers the choice of buying a new SME tonearm to use on their choice of deck. I don't think the lights will go out for many many years on vinyl replay equipment, but it might become a problem for SME Audio to survive in the market.
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It would be good to read a interview with those in charge at SME. It has to be remembered they are a specialist engineering company for aerospace, formula one and other area's. The turntable side of the business is second. When I orderd my turntable from SME it took 3 month as it was made to order. There has been many manufacturers of tomearms came onto the market. So SME share of the market will have shrunk as such just concentrate on their turntables. What cant be put into question is the quality of engineering into the products. Even What hifi recognise that in the model 6.
 
I used to love reading the various interviews given by Alastair Robertson-Airman within the pages of Gramophone and others. Typically, these also showcased his dedicated home listening room, which, by all accounts, was a spectacular place to listen to stacked Quad ESLs in. Before he made the switch to ESL63, ISTR him having had 3 or 4 pairs of ESL57 stacked up front, with two pairs at the rear for surround/ambience effects.

Sadly, according to Companies House, as of 15 August 2016, both Alastair's widow Marilyn and son Cameron are no longer with the company.
 
Craig B said:
Sadly, according to Companies House, as of 15 August 2016, both Alastair's widow Marilyn and son Cameron are no longer with the company.
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SME and Garrard was bought by a group of three Indian gentlemen who own a chain of hotels in India. I believe the same group also owns Cadence loudspeakers, Spendor as well as Criterion Audio in Cambridge and Audio Lounge in Wigmore Street in London.
 
What a horrible looking contraption. I'd not be at all surprised if this didn't mark the beginning of the end of SME as we know it.
 
I can kinda understand what they might be trying to do here? The old 'it's so ugly it's beautiful' switcharoo.

Beauty is natural, commonplace and often cheap. Nature cost us nothing, but the wealthy like to believe they're special and can buy a level of aesthetic perfection unavailable to the proletariat. But how can you give them that?

Easy. You..bullshit them. Emperors new clothes. You tell them the ugly stuff they're looking at is in fact so beautiful only the most sophisticated and discerning can see it. And they buy it. Literally. Bugatti Veyron cars, Jackson Pollock scribbles and just about any crazily expensive watch you've ever seen. Seriously, when was the last time you saw a hyper-watch that didn't look like something an eight year old boy would draw after watching Iron Man while eating three boxes of Sugar Puffs?

So if you admit that you think this SME turntable looks kinda ugly, you're a dweeb and I'm sorry sir, but this work of art is not for you. Move along, make way for someone with taste.
 
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