SME Exits TA Business
 

https://sme.co.uk/2019/12/03/sme-product-announcement/

Not surprising after seeing the price on their "new" Garrard 401 TA/TT release. Too bad. But, India has never been known as a hot-bed of the high-end.

From the press release, there is a glimmer of hope:

"This tradition of tonearm manufacturing will continue with the manufacture of our highly accredited tonearms for the purpose of coupling with our comprehensive range of high-end precision turntables ..."

Makes sense from a business perspective as there's (likely considerably) more margin in complete turntables than selling standalone arms.

Back when SME started manufacturing arms in 1959, many of the "higher-end" turntable decks, e.g. Garrard, ELAC, and Thorens, etc. were sold w/o tonearms. Today, the vast majority of turntables are sold with tonearms, so it's likely been a declining market for SME for some time now.

Stephen, I agree with you that many makers are selling with an arm, it had to be hard on SME - business ain’t easy!

SME will still support their lines and of course their new direction selling tables with arms.

This makes absolutely no sense to me. The incremental cost of forecasting, manufacturing, packaging and stocking separate arms is de-minimus. Lowering component volumes never has a positive effect on manufacturing cost.

Their business assumption seems to be that some percentage of standalone arm buyers will now purchase a complete SME TT package now that stand alone arms are no longer offered.

I guess only SME can explain their reasoning.

Happy I bought my SME 309 tonearm for my Michell Gyro SE when I did.

Spoke with someone who was formerly the largest reseller of SME TAs in NA. He told me that he was offered as many arms & parts as he wished to purchase by SME just before it was sold in 2016. He bought everything he could afford, but is either low or out-of-stock on most arms today. He has, obviously, not been pleased with the changes at SME.

My SME 309 was part of a package including a VPI HW-19MkIII and Grado cartridge back in 1992, upgraded to MkIV later that year. I like the detachable headshell for sure. Much easier to swap cartridges.

I plan to cannibalize the 309 to go on a new Sota Sapphire should I decide that a new TT is what I want, as opposed to new speakers or some other part of the system; this despite the fact I haven't been playing records much lately. But I've decided to keep a TT in the system, the 309 is a classic, and I can't afford an SME table. Too bad SME is doing this, but it's their choice.

Wonder how/if SME will be supporting their "legacy" products. From what a former SME reseller told me yesterday, apparently there is some animosity between SME's new owners and their former distributors. Would not be surprising if, once the existing contracts are 'out of the way' (broken, lapsed, whatever) that SME arms become available once again. However, that may be a while. If one wants parts (headshells, etc.) they may want to find them now.