Crafting the SME Model 60 Turntable... | Michael Fremer Investigates

Back in March of this year Michael Fremer attended the announcement ceremony for SME's new flagship Model 60. He got the inside scoop on how the SME is designed, manufactured, and more!
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[@dilbyjones]

Very cool. Right on track. Brilliant work. Im looking forward to reading the print issue. The new CNC work ups are covered really well. Great approach with the material by the team. Damping looks fantastic, world class. Just Staggered. THANK YOU

[@klaymoon1]

The U.K. retail price is £50,000, which is about $60,000 in USD. Not really. Because 20% is VAT. That's tax paid to U.K. government, which does not apply to a sale in U.S. The true U.S. equivalent price is actually $48,000. But, the U.S. retail price is $72,000!! That's 50% premium. Anyone buys this turntable in U.S. is paying 50% more than in U.K. I would rather visit U.K. and have an amazing vacation for $20,000, pick this turntable up, and still have $4,000 in my pocket. This old model of selling imported high-end audio products - it really needs to change.

[@tomhirschel8524]

Looks better all in black.

[@hamidrezahabibi8111]

Piece of Audiophile Art 🖼 and BEYOND ✨💎🇬🇧

[@dougg1075]

I’m so glad vinyl made a comeback. This is so cool to see the technology of old being improved with 2022 technology.

[@dougg1075]

Basically it’s like NASA building a turntable. Awesome

[@peterallen8413]

Hopefully it wont explode on launch.

[@tiojimmy3425]

And all I have is a lowly SME 3009II. I wonder what kind of measuring technology was used on that? tio Jimmy

[@truman4956]

Amazing craftsmanship.

[@stevieg2755]

If you gotta check each plate your cncs are pretty crappy,it's theater@ 70k these will fly off the shelf LOL

[@brianpoi5117]

Interesting that they do other machine work for the medical and aerospace industry to pay for the machines. I wonder what the revenue split is between turntables and other work.

[@joshua43214]

I am not sure I have ever seen a company that could benefit more from hiring a process engineer. It is almost like SME has turned inefficiency into an art form. I thought machining the PSU housing from billet was the real winner, then they moved onto machining the suspension from billet, and the final winner was checking the plate on a CMM. Cast aluminum has better damping characteristics than rolled, having the suspension housing cast would not only improve them, but would hugely reduce the cost and time. There is no benefit to using billet over cast for the PSU housing, and they would probably get the most improvement by switching to cast iron, or molding from iron sheet. Checking the plates on a CMM is doing nothing but adding time - there are methods that can be done right at the machine that will exceed the tolerances they are using.

[@martinvegas1327]

CMM machine is making sure everything is dead nuts on. I hear you👍

[@joshua43214]

@@martinvegas1327 Dead nuts onto what? They checked edges that are not in contact with anything for squareness. They checked diameter of holes that could be checked on the machine with a go-no-go gage. They checked the circularity of holes that are not bearing surfaces. Dude actually made a comment about tool wear showing up on the CMM, when the tool will leave a severely degraded finish long before it wears out of spec on aluminum.

[@VideoArchiveGuy]

@@joshua43214 Who cares? It's about perfection at this price level.

[@jonwills9160]

A machined forging would be an obvious alternative to machining from a billet.

[@philipw7058]

Just take a second mortgage on your house and you can play a record isn’t that great 🥴🥴this world is a joke 71000

[@paulomontero12]

Honeycomb should’ve been a yellow finish just like the 🐝