SME Model 12a – A tour de force in British engineering

After last week’s blog, I was fairly giddy to get into the shop to rip open our new Model 12 and see what makes it tick. Looking over the photos from the trip to SME’s factory had reminded me of just how impressed I had been at the painstaking lengths taken to ensure that every single piece of an SME product would pass the implausibly high standards set by the company founder so many years ago.

Looking at the plain brown box in front of me, I cannot help but think that whilst SME boxes may not be the very most luxurious form of packaging, but they do ensure that the turntable arrives at it’s destination in the same condition that they leave the factory.

Freeing the Model 12 and its power supply from its cardboard prison you’re immediately struck by the clean lines, gentle curves and flawless machining of the chassis. SME’s mastery in fabrication is demonstrated here in an understated manner, the powdercoat finish is totally uniform, the chamfers perfect and smooth; even the feet, which are mainly hidden buy the plinth are flawless.

Following SME’s instructions, assembly and set up of the Model 12 are an absolute breeze; with one stage in particular being something that, alongside peeling the wrapping off of a Wilson Speaker, I feel should be on every HiFi fanatics bucket list – filling the main bearing with oil. The turntable ships with just enough lubricant in the main bearing for shipping, as you unpack the box you will find a small syringe of a specific bearing oil. The syringe fits snugly over a small machined inlet and you gently empty the contents into the main bearing. As the excess air escapes from the bearing, its quite impossible not to feel as if you’re taking part in some space-age feat of technical wizardry.

Fitting our Ortofon Windfeld Ti to the Series V arm and the deck is just about ready to impress. The system, left-over from the weekend, constitutes Magico’s stupendous A5 floorstander, Devialet’s magnificent 250pro Integrated amplifier and Rega’s stellar Aura Phono stage. The combination of Magico and Devialet have, in my experience, proven to be totally unforgiving of sources that are anything less than faultless, the absolute transparency of the amplifier coupled with the resolving power of the speaker coalesce to easily demonstrate shortcomings. Fortunately, this is a source without fault.

Queuing up the XX’s debut album, I’m met with a familiar open and solid presentation. It’s very hard to put into words exactly how it sounds other than “just right”. Islands is reproduced with a calmness and quiet that is seldom found outside of digital sources. The brutal bass of Crystalise is handled with ease, no doubt thanks in part to the Windfeld’s Replicant 100 Stylus, and the soundstage is vast and expansive.

Changing discs over to Bonobo’s 2010 album Black Sands, the SME continues to impress with its confident and powerful presentation but it is prowess with which it emulates Andreya Triana’s voice that astounds. The SME manages to convey a emotive, musical sound that only analogue sources can truly deliver with aplomb that convinces you that the voice emanating from the speakers is no mere facsimile but a real, living and breathing soul. It is my belief that the Model 10 manages this through virtue of its peerless build, the relentless quest for perfection in manufacturing at SME’s factory manifesting as little other than perfection in playback. Yes, some may find the presentation analytical and some may miss the skew and embellishment of some well-known Scottish turntables; but for me this is High Fidelity epitomised and built in Britain.

The Model 10 is available with a range of tonearms and starts from £8,550.

The post SME Model 12a – A tour de force in British engineering first appeared on Oxford Audio.

After last week’s blog, I was fairly giddy to get into the shop to rip open our new Model 12 and see what makes it tick. Looking over the photos […]

The post SME Model 12a – A tour de force in British engineering first appeared on Oxford Audio.