Turntables, Arms & Cartridges

In less well-run factories, design and production engineers can find themselves in conflict – the former assuming a utopian ideal where the best components and materials are readily at hand while the latter are tasked with optimising layouts for production and sourcing components with proven reliability from known suppliers. Production engineers must also deal with parts, large and small, suddenly becoming unavailable or subject to unexpectedly long lead times. Post-Covid, the reality of chaotic supply chains is something almost everyone is now acutely aware of from hi-fi to automotive to construction. Viewed in this light, the fact that SME employed the same DC motor in its turntables for nearly 30 years is something of a miracle although, SME being SME, almost every part of those OEM drives, short of the coils, was re-engineered using its own precision tooling. Consistency and performance was thus assured, albeit at a price. So it was fortuitous that the eventual withdrawal of that motor, and many of the components used in the original speed controller, coincided with SME's quest to secure what has turned out to be a superior, and rather larger, AC motor-based solution complete with entirely fresh electronics. Judging by SME's track record, and despite the turbulence of the times, who would bet against SME providing any lesser support for this new 'AC generation' of turntables? Not me... PM