The ‘Scale Model Equipment Company Ltd’ was founded in 1946 to produce parts for the model engineering industry, but by the 1950s, it had expanded to include aircraft instruments and commercial machinery. The first ‘precise pick-up arm’ from SME didn’t come until 1959. It was a revelation by agricultural standards of the time, and it […]
There was a time in the mid-1970s when Ortofon cartridges were all over the place. Almost every new sub-£100 turntable seemed to come with an FF15E — a good-sounding £15 budget model – whilst your Rega Planar 3s, Ariston RD40s, and Dunlop Systemdek IIs tended to come with the VMS20E. This was an excellent fit
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From a British perspective, high-end turntables in the late 1970s started with Rega’s Planar 3 and finished with the fully equipped Linn Sondek. That was the final chapter of the story. However, in those heady days when belt-drive ruled the roost and direct-drives were judged ‘unmusical’ by the UK press, any audiophile looking East would
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The name SME precedes the brand. Everyone in the audiophile community knows it’s a terrific firm with a fantastic history. Any SME product is guaranteed to be of high quality, and it has never produced a dud. Is that the case? Some people don’t consider the Series III, which was introduced in 1978 and won
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This moving magnet cartridge was introduced in 1978 and sold for the princely price of £37, which was a lot of money for a phono cartridge at the time. In a world where a £25 Ortofon VMS20E was deemed lavish, most British purchasers regarded the new Rega as a high-end product. It was designed to
When Roy Gandy’s mother asked if he wanted a record player or a television, he chose the former. But despite his best efforts, he received the latter, motivating him to pursue hi-fi in his own unique way. Four years later, he’d designed and built his own loudspeakers, begun going to shows, and started buying records
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In 1986, just as it appeared that vinyl was nearing its end, the SME Series V arrived. The tagline “the best pickup arm in the world” had been used by the Steyning company for a long time, but it had become a bit of a joke. The SME Series III was far from this, and
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It’s been a long time, but if you time-traveled to the mid-1970s and conducted a poll of the most popular phono cartridge on the market, this would undoubtedly come out on top. Between 1974 and 1979, the Shure M75ED ‘Stereo Dynetic Cartridge’ appeared on practically every new turntable on the market. Of course, your Linn
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Many people thought that the Revox name was the finest of the best back in the mid-1970s. The company was recognized as a provider of ultra-high-end hi-fi equipment, far beyond even the most well-known US brands. The A77 tape recorder, which was utilized in recording studios and high-end hi-fi systems alike, was proof of this,
There have been few items in hi-fi that have lasted as long as the Shure V15. It was the American company’s main pickup cartridge from 1964 to 2005, and it went through eight different iterations. It cultivated a devoted following; for others, it was the only method to listen to LP music. The V15 had
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