Happily I have just secured one of the last available SME Series IV arms before they disappear altogether. Bizarrely this was all made possible by my Mother who I havenāt financially depended on for handouts since I was a student 30 years ago!
We had lunch and I had told her about SME, not I hasten to add because I had any hidden agenda but merely in conversation and she remembered my passion! I was thus completely unprepared for her offer later that afternoon to provide the funding for it!! I refused her very kind offer initially because it didnāt feel right. When she pointed out that it would be something I would always keep that would remind me of her whenever I played a record while she is here and after she has gone I realised it is a wonderful way to remember her. She jokingly asked if that would be āall right for Christmas?ā I replied it would do for the next 20!!
So with much excitement I collected my SME and have spent a pleasant few hours fitting it to the Gyrodec MK IV. Everything about it exudes class, from the packaging to the beatifully machined tools that accompany it and are branded SME. Even the installation instructions are wonderfully clear and illustrated every step of the way with good photographs.
My enthusiasm for the SME IV all started when it graced the front cover of HI-Fi News magazine in July 1987. As I have never parted with a hi-fi magazine and have an extensive collection in the loft I have been able to retrieve my copy since buying the arm
To be honest I suspected before fitting it that replacing a Rega RB600 with an SME IV was likely going to be pushing deep into diminishing returns territory. I thought long and hard about what record to choose first and in the end settled on Del Amitriās second album āWaking Hoursā. Del Amitri were very much the soundtrack of my student years and are a band I still completely adore to this day. If beautifully crafted, lyrically intelligent, melodic rock with a celtic leaning is your thing then you owe it to yourself to explore their half dozen albums. They are one of the few bands whose albums I enjoy all the way through, thereās no filler tracks here! They are carefully crafted and well recorded albums that reward critical listening and I know them intimately.
The SME visually is a masterpiece of engineering excellence, flawless in its finish and incredibly beautiful. Its mechanical precision is a perfect compliment to a the Gyrodec which is itself a deck that reflects its designerās fundamental understanding of turntable engineering. Thereās nothing superfluous on a Gyrodec, its beautiful form is entirely driven by function and itās one of the reasons I have loved it for even longer than the SME.
So with a glass of oaky spanish Batturica Tarragona Gran Reserva poured I lowered the beautifully damped lever of the SME IV, the Audio Technica AT-OC9 MLII slipped gently into the groove and I took my seat for this eveningās performance. Now my copy of āWaking Hoursā originates from the start of my second year at Birmingham University in 1989 and was the soundtrack to numerous parties seductions and breakups over the years so itās far from pristine but immediately I was struck by a seeming reduction in surface noise. As the opening bars of āKiss this thing goodbyeā rang out through the ATC SCM40ās (driven by NAC82/HICAP/NAP250) the sound was so much more āin the roomā. Justin Currie (vocals) was a palpable presence, the guitars were precisely located and the piano had a scale and presence I have not heard listening to this album on any format before. Everything was so much more tangible and ārealā. Underpinning all this was a staggeringly solid bass and drum line, when a Tom drum hits you feel the air in the room move the way it would if it was actually there. I expected it to be better but never in my wildest dreams did I expect this level of improvement.
As I listened on I realised that not only did the SME have hugely more impact and dynamics but it was smoother at the top end and yet more revealing of details buried deep in the mix. On one side of an album I have owned for 30 years I heard three instruments I had never even noticed before.
Like many people I had doubted that moving up from a middle ranking arm like the Rega to a super-arm like the SME could produce a sufficient improvement to justify the cost. Let me disabuse you of that notion right now!! Itās worth pointing out that as part of the arm change I also moved up to the Orbe record clamp and that is a far superior device compared to the relatively lightweight affair shipped with the Gyro as standard. By all accounts the Orbe clamp offers a superior sound so undoubtedly some of the improvement is related to that as a core component of the Gyrodec design relies on clamping the record to a mat with similar acoustic and mechanical properties to vinyl.
As one can imagine I spent a blissful evening exploring my record collection with my wife and both agreed that the change was absolutely not subtle. The SME has unlocked a yet higher level of performance from the Gyrodec that I simply never knew existed. Previously I would have said that it had achieved parity with my NDX and Naim Cdi. Now it is quite clearly the superior source.
In terms of next steps the possibility of a dedicated phono stage is tempting. I currently use the NAC82 in-built phono boards but a Trichord Dino and Never connected supply looks like a tempting propositionā¦
Itās strange finally acquiring one of your hi-fi bucket list items when 32 years of longing comes to a close. Products such as the SME IV, for me at least, are the stuff of dreams. I did wonder if it would prove to be a disappointment, like meeting a famous actor, actress or musician who you have idolised your whole life only to find they arenāt as charming, amusing or beautiful as you expected. Well tonight I encountered one of my heroes and my records will simply never sound the same againā¦
Jonathan
