Analog Corner

Then, in London last June, came an opportunity to interview the political cartoonist Gerald Scarfe, who illustrated and designed characters for Pink Floyd's The Wall. He'd be available immediately following a talk he was scheduled to give at the Victoria and Albert Museum, where Pink Floyd's exhibition, Their Mortal Remains, was drawing record crowds. As long as I was going to be in the UK, I figured, why not use the opportunity to revisit SME, and chat with McNeilis and Shirke about their plans?

SME put me up in the historic town of Arundel, on the other side of the mountain from Steyning, and the setting of one of England's dozen most dramatic castles. The ancient hotel, the Norfolk Arms, was charming. Less charming was schlepping my luggage up four flights to the top floor and Room 19, which lacked both air conditioning and windows that fully opened. But I'm not complaining! It was a wonderful, relaxing respite from work.

They'd left me alone that first evening to chill out and get time-acclimated, so as the sun set I walked down to the River Arun, and sat on a park bench next to a guy about my age. We started talking. When I told him why I was in town, he told me he'd been a contract machinist and had worked for Quick Release Terminals, in the nearby town of Worthing, where he'd machined some parts for SME that he'd brought over to be inspected by Alastair Robertson-Aikman, whom he'd met. What were the odds of that?

The next day, a driver took me to SME. One thing I'd forgotten about the Mill Road site is that directly across the street from it are some very attractive and probably costly houses. Later, I asked McNeilis if the neighbors even knew what went on at SME. "No, they did not," he said. When SME held an open house for the neighbors, most were astonished by what they saw when they stepped inside.

The Mill Road factory looked much the same as it had on my last visit, in 2014, with a few small changes. The welcoming carpet still features the SME logo, but underneath it is a new legend: "SINCE 1946." Still greeting visitors from behind glass on the staircase's first landing is the famous cantilevered SME Model 30. New in the lobby is a vintage display case containing SME tonearms as well as sophisticated parts machined by SME for other companies in other industries. Next to the stairs leading to the second floor was the massive turntable stand used at High End.

McNeilis told me that, 10 years ago, SME's business was 50% contract work, 50% turntables and tonearms. When he joined the company in November 2016, it was 30% contract, 70% audio. His goal is to return to the 50/50 proportion, with the help of a recently hired manager of engineering sales who, like McNeilis, comes from the aerospace industry. They're pursuing clients in the aerospace, medical, and high-performance auto industries, including Formula One, and in less than a year have come close to achieving that goal. As of June 2017, SME's balance was 40% contract work, 60% audio.

McNeilis has left entirely intact AR-A's 1950s-vintage office—it's straight out of Mad Men—but you can be sure there will be changes at SME. He showed me the rare, SMEC-era scale-model cars he's had his team hunt down and buy. The new owners are very conscious of the value of SME's heritage.

Before we toured the factory, McNeilis and I sat down and talked about the problems to be solved, and what he sees as the way forward. We talked about SME's distribution problems in North America and the UK, with both of which I was well familiar. There was the issue of the Canadian tonearm dealer who for many years had created serious pricing problems in the US market. That's finally been dealt with. Acoustic Sounds, SME's former US distributor, will remain a dealer, but national distribution will now be handled by Toronto-based Bluebird Music.

Instead of selling direct to UK retailers, SME has appointed an outside distributor that has cut off many of the original dealers, of which there were simply too many. There was whining and complaining, but the new team felt it was a mess in need of cleaning up. Outsourcing UK distribution frees up SME to concentrate on what it does best: manufacturing.

McNeilis and I discussed the need for new, young workers to join the 40 or so SME veterans, many of whom have worked there for decades. To make this happen, he's visited area schools, and is working within a government-sponsored apprentice program. Then we toured the factory.

Not much has changed in terms of how SME products are made. Other than the magnesium armtubes, which are cast in Chicago, every SME part is manufactured in-house, down to the screws and washers. It seemed that most or all of the people I'd seen working at SME in 2014 were still there doing the same work, which is labor-intensive and microdetailed to the point of obsession.

One example of this is the manufacture of the Series V tonearm's counterbalance. The weight itself, machined of tungsten, is finished by hand, which includes a great deal of sanding and polishing. Each weight is then inspected before being inserted in a turning device to remove any remaining rough edges. The weight is then painted, and inserted in the counterweight carrier, where all of that detailed work disappears forever.

McNeilis told me that when he asked why this and many other superdetailed but probably entirely unnecessary processes continue to be done as SME has always done them, he was told, "That's the way Mr. Robertson-Aikman wanted it to be done." This put the new CEO in a difficult position. If he ordered these steps to be changed or eliminated, no one buying an SME turntable would notice a difference, but it would probably alienate loyal longtime workers, mark a break in company tradition, and probably damage its very specific and rich branding. It simply cannot be done.

I was reminded of my time at Walt Disney, where things were being done in an old-school, often irrational way. For instance, the first time I saw dailies for the film I was working on, Tron (1982), the production-sound dialog had been severely compressed, making it sound like the optical soundtrack of a film made in the 1930s. This took time and cost money, and it tied the hands of the final mixers, who were then stuck with that track instead of being given the full dynamic-range version, which, if necessary, they could later compress. When I asked why that and many other antiquated Disney practices continued, I was told, "That's how Walt wanted it done." My response was, "Well, Walt is dead." True, but maybe that's why I didn't remain at Disney after Tron was completed. McNeilis intends to be at SME for a while.

After the tour, McNeilis and I again sat down. "It seems to me you have to have two sets of SME products," I told him: "a 'Heritage' series, in which the existing line—the models 30, 20, 15, and 10 turntables, and the current tonearm line—will continue to be built as they've always been, and priced accordingly; and an 'SME 21' line of new, higher-tech turntables built to an equally high standard, but with more modern production techniques and materials aimed at a different audience, and perhaps at lower prices—or maybe even a few at higher prices."

After my visit to SME in 2014, I had an uneasy feeling about the company's future. It seemed to be adrift, in caretaker mode. This year's visit made me feel that, under the leadership of Shirke and McNeilis, SME's future looks bright.

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Footnote 1: See J. Gordon Holt's 1965 review of the original SME 3009 tonearm at, which includes a 1971 follow-up by John Wright on the SME 3009 II.

Footnote 2: SME Limited, Mill Road, Steyning, West Sussex BN44 3GY, England, UK. Tel: (44) (0)1903-814321. Fax: (44) (0)1903-814269. Web: sme.co.uk. US distributor: Bluebird Music. Web: www.bluebirdmusic.com