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Inside SME Ltd.–A Pictorial Factory Tour of the Turntable/Tonearm Legend

Inside SME Ltd.–A Pictorial Factory Tour of the Turntable/Tonearm Legend

There are few names in audio, analog or digital, that get the heart racing like the turntables and tonearms from SME Ltd. Long admired for its precision mechanical engineering and jewel-like construction SME components are perennial Editor’s Choice stand outs. Recently I was on holiday in England, so when the opportunity to visit the factory presented itself I grabbed for it.  

Located in the modest working class environs of Steyning in the West Sussex region of England there is nothing especially glamorous or prepossessing about the 1940s-style two-story, brick edifice that is the SME factory, nor its cross-town, second facility used for die-casting, plastic molding and grinding. The areas are cramped yet unquestionably neat. Every raw material, parts bin, and table or tonearm in whatever stage of completion is carefully in its allotted space with finished parts arrayed on wooden jigs so as not to come in contact with and possibly scratching one other prior to final assembly.

The adventure began with Managing Director Cameron Robertson-Aikman greeting me at the Shoreham-By-Sea train station. On the short drive to Steyning he informed me that the day would commence with the factory tour led by factory general manager Liam Daly to be followed by lunch and a listening session with the new flagship–the SME Model 30/12A, a larger more massive version of the Model 30/2 with the Series V-12 twelve-inch tonearm–an experience which I will cover in another installment.

While the CNC machinery (Hardinge, a US company makes these machines) is the high tech mainstay for creating the complex angles and precision geometries that are so much apart of analog playback, what really hit home is the sheer amount of hand finishing, polishing, very close up examination that goes on. Obviously this is not the kind of backbreaking work demanded of depression-era Welsh coal miners but working with steel, brass, aluminum and magnesium requires more than the usual elbow grease and you can see it in the toughened hands and forearms of many of the SME crew. One fascinating element that speaks to SME’s health commitment to its workers and the larger environment regards what I didn’t smell throughout the tour- to my nostrils the factory didn’t emit a whiff of industrial chemicals. Curious I asked Daly about this and he smiled and replied that the air of the factory was completely exchanged four times a minute!  A staggering thought, especially for a factory that is now running multiple shifts, seven days a week.

Nice Set of Threads
One example of the perfectionism that SME is renowned for is that it extends to even the smallest lead tonearm screws. They don’t “source” them from a third party vendor. Rather they stamp out their own “blanks” and use a 1950s era-built  thread generator. I didn’t actually see it in action in the other facility but as Mr Daly explained to me the threads are not  “screw-cut” onto the blanks which is crudely typical, rather they generate or “thread roll them” to produce a very accurate blank that’s ground within microns of accuracy. The blank is forced between two wheels that are hydraulically driven. It then moves the metal blank into the thread former within them. Daly: “Hence when you roll it between your fingers, normally you think, that’s sharp! But not on these screws since the metal isn’t cut, it’s formed.”  And if for example you’ve ever rotated the thumbwheel adjustment for overhang at the rear of an SME tonearm you’ll know what I mean when I describe the action as silken–as if it wasn’t metal at all. Following is the first installment of images with short comments. A second installment is forthcoming.

Image 1-A CMM or coordinate measuring machine CMM that is programmed to check a part’s dimensions for accuracy and flatness relative to itself and other impacted partsInside SME Ltd.–A Pictorial Factory Tour of the Turntable/Tonearm Legend

Image 2-Control arm brackets drilled and tapped prior to final machining, Placement on the jig keeps them from damaging each other.Inside SME Ltd.–A Pictorial Factory Tour of the Turntable/Tonearm Legend

Image 3-the  rumbling or barrelling machines and plating. Different grades and sizes of these resin pebbles act like very fine sandpaper to gently round every hard edge. Usually runs about eight hours, generally through the night.Inside SME Ltd.–A Pictorial Factory Tour of the Turntable/Tonearm Legend
 

Image 4-CNC machine programmed to cut up to 16 distinct angles. All programs are downloaded to disc. Note-although it’s indistinct looking through the protective glass, there twin spigots of oil cooling the point of contact in center of imageInside SME Ltd.–A Pictorial Factory Tour of the Turntable/Tonearm Legend
 

Image 5-A gorgeously finished top gallery suspension column for SME 30- followed by Image 6-the raw, rod material that begins the process.Inside SME Ltd.–A Pictorial Factory Tour of the Turntable/Tonearm LegendInside SME Ltd.–A Pictorial Factory Tour of the Turntable/Tonearm Legend

Neil Gader

By Neil Gader

My love of music largely predates my enthusiasm for audio. I grew up Los Angeles in a house where music was constantly playing on the stereo (Altecs, if you’re interested). It ranged from my mom listening to hit Broadway musicals to my sister’s early Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Beatles, and Stones LPs, and dad’s constant companions, Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett. With the British Invasion, I immediately picked up a guitar and took piano lessons and have been playing ever since. Following graduation from UCLA I became a writing member of the Lehman Engel’s BMI Musical Theater Workshops in New York–working in advertising to pay the bills. I’ve co-written bunches of songs, some published, some recorded. In 1995 I co-produced an award-winning short fiction movie that did well on the international film-festival circuit. I was introduced to Harry Pearson in the early 70s by a mutual friend. At that time Harry was still working full-time for Long Island’s Newsday even as he was writing Issue 1 of TAS during his off hours. We struck up a decades-long friendship that ultimately turned into a writing gig that has proved both stimulating and rewarding. In terms of music reproduction, I find myself listening more than ever for the “little” things. Low-level resolving power, dynamic gradients, shadings, timbral color and contrasts. Listening to a lot of vocals and solo piano has always helped me recalibrate and nail down what I’m hearing. Tonal neutrality and presence are important to me but small deviations are not disqualifying. But I am quite sensitive to treble over-reach, and find dry, hyper-detailed systems intriguing but inauthentic compared with the concert-going experience. For me, true musicality conveys the cozy warmth of a room with a fireplace not the icy cold of an igloo. Currently I split my time between Santa Fe, New Mexico and Studio City, California with my wife Judi Dickerson, an acting, voice, and dialect coach, along with border collies Ivy and Alfie.

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