Those who, like me, hauled ourselves through college music courses will remember being told that the Byrd Mass for five voices is a masterpiece, a claim soon belied when we were played a performance by some desiccated, monochromatic chorus. Had a recording like the new one by The Gesualdo Six been played instead, we might have agreed more readily with the academic judgment.
Simply by singing…
When my wife and I got engaged, we each bought each other a "bubble-back" Rolex watch from an antique shop in San Francisco. Mine was a 1939, hers was a 1940; both watches still run fine, though I am not sure for how much longer, as Rolex no longer services watches that old. My respect for Swiss engineering is based in part on my experience with the Rolexes. So I readily agreed when Editor-in-Chief Jim Austin proposed that I spend some time with the current version of the I1 Universal integrated…
The grandest perk of being a reviewer is when sniffing through the grass leads me to a high-performance product capable of wide-ranging appeal at a price point that shouldn't scare anyone. In my sniffing, I have encountered a few products of this type, whose success I've applauded because it is so much fun to see legions of happy audiophiles united in their approval of a product so unusual that they may not have considered it had it not been ardently championed in the audiophile press.
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SME's history is well-documented. The company started out, in 1946, as an engineering company for hire. In 1959, after a few years supplying parts for the scale modeling and various other high-tech industries, company founder Alastair Robertson-Aikman wanted a better tonearm for…
The Model 60's platter and bearing are identical to those used on the Model 30, although on the 60, the bottom part of the bearing housing sits in a bath of silicone damping fluid to further suppress vibrations. SME felt that these components had already reached a level of performance that would be tough to improve on, so no further changes were made. The top surface of the platter has a built-in record mat made from a material called Isodamp, which is permanently bonded to the platter. To ensure perfect mat centering, the raw, unfinished Isodamp sheet is bonded to the platter, then the…
Description: Suspended, mass-loaded, belt-driven turntable with two-phase AC synchronous motor. Speeds: 33 1/3, 45rpm. Platter: 13" (330mm) diameter, 16.6lb (7.5kg). Wow & flutter: not specified. Tonearm: Series VA, gimbal-bearing polymer resin. Effective length: 233.15mm; pivot-to-spindle distance: 215.35mm; overhang: 17.8mm; offset angle: 23.635°; effective mass: 10–11gm. Signal output: chassis-mounted RCA sockets; balanced XLR outputs optional.
Dimensions: 21.93" (557mm) × 16.42" (417mm) × 8.35" (212mm). Weight: Turntable 105.8lb (48kg); speed control…
Analog sources: SME Model 30/2A, Roksan TMS, Brinkmann La Grange, Garrard 301, Thorens TD 124, Linn Sondek LP12, and Technics SL-1000 Mk2A turntables. Graham Model 2.2; SME Series V, IV.Vi, 309, 3009; Brinkmann 12.1; Breuer Dynamic Type 8; Technics EPA-100; Linn Ittok LVII; Fidelity Research FR-64S; Eminent Technology ET2 tonearms. Lyra Atlas, Dynavector DRT XV-1s, Grado Legacy Epoch, Ortofon Cadenza Blue, Koetsu Urushi and Rosewood, Linn Troika, Luxman LMC-5, Kiseki Purple Heart, Red Rose Petal 2, Denon DL-103, Audio Note IQ3 phono cartridges. Technics RS-…
Speed stability has been a given with previous SME turntables, but the switch from DC to AC motor drive has taken its Model 60 to another level. Its approximately 0.005% absolute speed accuracy and mere 0.01% peak-weighted wow (fig.1) are comparable with the best of today's direct-drive offerings, including Technics's fabulous Grand Class SL-1200GAE. Few other belt-drive decks get this close.