I was chatting to Johnny Nilsen today and he told me that after 35 years at SME, Brian Laker, the service manager, has left the company.
Brian has recently started his own business, Mr SME, which is focused on servicing the later SME tonearms: Series 300, IV and V.
Whenever, I had cause to speak to SME about any issues, I found Brian extremely knowledgeable and helpful.
This is Brian’s website and should any of you have need of his services, rest assured that your arm will be in safe hands.
I wish him all the best, SME will be reduced without his expertise. From a factory workforce of 80 in the late 80’s to12 today it’s a stark reminder of where analog audio is today.
I got my Series V off Alastair back in the late 80’s, demo in the nice (slightly kitsch) listening room. But I regret never having the chance to have a look around their factory then. Would’ve been fascinating.
My arm still seems to work fine but it’s useful to know that he’s there to fix it if need be.
I feel it is only fair to point out that SME’s decline is largely one of its current owner’s own making rather than a chronic issue with the market in general. Other companies selling product in the same price categories have not experienced the same problems.
In fairness most co’s selling in the same bracket (TT’s arms etc) do not have the overheads of 80 staff and a full factory to contend with. Once this was what was required, now not so much.
They also generally don’t have a neo Trumpian, zero sum view of the market that confused a symbiotic relationship (other companies bought their arm because it worked well and was nice to use) with a dependent one (that they were buying the arms because no other options existed and that stopping supply would result in them being unable to sell their wares and have customers beating a path to West Sussex).
From the moment that the maker of The World’s Best Tonearm™ decided that said arm would not be available on its own, SME was going to be in a world of hurt. Companies the had been umming and ahhing over doing their own arm suddenly had both impetus to do so and the reduced risk of the evergreen favourite not being available to compete. Their exit from arm sales has resulted in an explosion of high end tonearm design.
And then, because idiocy rarely stops at one bad decision, having decided it was double or quits on complete turntables, the company began fucking about with the known quantities that were ARA’s designs and releasing a confused, overlapping mess of new designs that lacked the basic elegance of the original models. The Model 10 (which it seems had been doing very nicely for itself in non UK markets) was haphazardly replaced, first by something that looked like it was the work of Fisher Price and more recently by something barely less fuck ugly. The bigger models are less visually unappealing but equally, they could have been made by anyone. SME turntables were always something of an acquired taste sonically. Now they’re the only taste the company is offering and one that they- even judged by the standards of the modern high end- want you to pay handsomely for.
There’s another reason for the decline in those numbers too. For years, SME did very nicely out of third party metalwork. Even this century, there were F1 seasons where every team on the grid had something made by them and let’s not forget that they made bits for plenty of other audio companies too. When the world’s greatest business genius shut that entire section down, those people were surplus to requirements through absolutely no fault of their own.
SME -
All of which is true, there’s more too but not for here.