Turntables, Arms & Cartridges

'The Musical Fidelity M1 is a head-turner' [HFN Mar '04], and the new M8xTT certainly has no less stop-you-in-your-tracks appeal. But while that inaugural deck established the industrial design that would be copied some 20 years later, there are fundamental differences in their respective engineering. Most obviously the M1 featured a two-piece acrylic platter, each 'disc' some 30mm-thick, sandwiching eight cylindrical spacer weights that brought the total rotating mass to 5.7kg.

The ~70mm deep platter allowed the use of a long, inverted bearing shaft measuring 60x13mm with a spiral 'keeper' groove machined into its surface. However, while the platter was about half the weight of today's all-alloy solution, start-up time was a lethargic 25 seconds thanks, in part, to the low-torque DC motor (with ±3% fine speed control). And the arm? That was SME's then-new M2 – available in 9-12in lengths and equipped with a detachable headshell, it was described at the time as 'a 3009 for the 21st century'. And the sound? 'Tactile and colourful'! PM