SME Model 6 - It’s Not Just Another Turntable
Peopleunfamiliar with SME might look at the Model 6 and see an ordinary-looking turntablewith an MDF plinth, a plain acrylic platter and Sorthobane feet. They mightassume the Model 6 is built to hit a price point then a badge is slapped on.
Actually,nothing could be further from the truth. The Model 6 is a highly engineeredturntable that offers phenomenal performance for its price. If you know SME,you know SME would never put their badge on anything that was not trulyextraordinary.
As a resultof their work with some of the world’s leading aerospace, medical and Formula 1manufacturers, and their 75 years of precision engineering expertise, SME hasaccess to a wealth of engineering and materials science knowledge that makes itunique in the audio industry.
A few yearsago the new management at SME began to ponder the nature of future generationsof SME products and began experimenting with polymer resin materials. As theydeveloped various formulations SME discovered this material had superbvibration damping and isolation properties. After much testing SME arrived atone formulation for the turntable plinth and another for the turntable footers.
The plinthof the Model 6 is not constructed from MDF; it is made from a solid block ofthe harder polymer resin formulation which is then CNC machined to take itsfinal shape with the desired cut-outs. The plinth offers an outstanding levelof vibration damping – much better than MDF, and it is also very rigid. Thepolymer resin plinth is one of the secrets to the Model 6’s exceptional soniccapabilities.
The Model6’s isolation feet are another important engineering accomplishment. SMEsettled on a softer formulation of their now proprietary polymer resin for theturntable’s four footers. The footers are specially shaped to be self-levellingand provide an exceptional degree of isolation.
Thanks tothe elegant simplicity of their design the plinth and footers work together toprovide the superb resonance control characteristics that are normally onlyfound in much more expensive turntables.
Acrylicplatters are often used in turntables to save cost and weight. Acrylic waschosen for the Model 6 to save weight but acrylic is not an easy material towork with. Acrylic tends to warp when it is machined, and the last thing youwant on a turntable is a platter that is less than perfectly flat. There aremany quality grades of acrylic but SME found only the very highest gradeacrylic could be machined to the necessary standard.
Although itsurprisingly costs more than an aluminum platter, the platter on the Model 6delivers the low weight needed to match the low-noise motor system, and it alsooffers the anti-warping properties that will ensure the platter remainsabsolutely flat with zero runout over decades of use.
Three keyengineering innovations that separate the Model 6 from the crowd are theplinth, the platter and the isolation feet. These three features enable theModel 6 to deliver a superior level of vibration isolation and damping. TheModel 6 provides a stable platform which allows your phono cartridge to performclosest to its theoretical capability for a fraction of the cost of otherturntables with similar properties.
You might besurprised to know the new VA Series tonearm on SME’s flagship Model 60, whichis by a wide margin the best performing tonearm SME has ever built, is alsomade from a special SME polymer resin. Thus, some of the technology developedfor the Model 6 is so advanced that it made its way into SME’s new referenceModel 60! Therefore we confidently say: listen to the SME Model 6, it’s notjust another turntable.
