Turntable Reviews

The Model 60's platter and bearing are identical to those used on the Model 30, although on the 60, the bottom part of the bearing housing sits in a bath of silicone damping fluid to further suppress vibrations. SME felt that these components had already reached a level of performance that would be tough to improve on, so no further changes were made. The top surface of the platter has a built-in record mat made from a material called Isodamp, which is permanently bonded to the platter. To ensure perfect mat centering, the raw, unfinished Isodamp sheet is bonded to the platter, then the platter/mat sandwich is returned to the lathe, and the mat is trimmed and a scroll pattern engraved into its surface. The resulting textured surface provides an ideal interface for a record, especially when the SME's excellent clamp and center-lift washer are used.

The last setup step with the main chassis is to adjust the height of the suspended chassis at each corner, raising then lowering the suspension until the thick end of the feeler gauge fits perfectly into a gap between the plinth and the suspension tower.

Finally, I connected the power supply using the provided Siltech power cables to go from the transformer box to the main power supply box then on to the turntable itself. Separating these parts allows the power supply to be positioned where it falls easily to hand; the potentially noisy transformer can be kept a good distance away. The power supply lets you turn the motor on and select between 33 1/3 and 45rpm speeds. An adjustment mode lets you fine-tune each speed using the included strobe disc.

A 78rpm speed option is not included, despite being a feature on almost all previous SME turntables. To be fair, I doubt many people have used their SME turntables to play 78s, as SME 'tables do not allow for the fitment of a second tonearm, which can be supplied with a 78-friendly cartridge, although I did once work on a Model 15 where the owner used an external arm pod and arm for playing his collection of early blues 78s.

To further simplify the setup, the new Series VA tonearm comes preinstalled on the Model 60. A few years ago, SME stopped selling most of their tonearms as separate items, choosing instead to supply them only in SME turntable-tonearm packages. The Series VA arm is currently only available when purchased with a Model 60 turntable. Want to remove the arm and use it on something else? This is made more complicated by how the arm's output wiring is handled. Instead of a swiveling DIN socket attached to the base of the arm itself, the VA's wiring is hard-wired to a separate output box mounted on the Model 60's lower plinth. There, you can connect an RCA-to-RCA cable for the phono signal, with balanced XLR connectors available as an option.

Since the beginning, every SME tonearm has used its own unique cartridge alignment system. The usual elongated slots in the headshell, which allow you to position the cartridge to achieve the required overhang, are missing. Instead, the cartridge is fixed in the headshell using its simple round holes, and overhang is effectively altered by sliding the whole arm along a track at the base of the arm. This system is quite elegant when you use the alignment tools that come with the arm, but it is tricky, though not impossible, to use alternate alignments and tools.

This system also leaves very little scope for tweaking the zenith and no way of altering azimuth should your cartridge have less-than-perfect internal alignment. Aftermarket solutions are available to help deal with these issues, but I was hoping that with a complete redesign, SME would have produced an arm where zenith and azimuth could be adjusted. Thirty-five years ago, alignment factors such as azimuth were harder to measure and so harder to optimize, so I understand why they weren't included on an arm designed in 1986. Today we know better.

Those caveats aside, the Series VA arm is a joy to work with and displays a level of fit and finish that most arms can only wish for. Basic things like the tracking-force adjustment and the cueing mechanism work consistently and smoothly, and the arm's freedom of movement is cleverly limited to minimize the chances of a handling accident.

Listening
Using my Model 30/2 turntable and Series V tonearm as a benchmark, I was able to directly compare the Model 60 with the Series VA arm with my Model 30/2 with the Series V arm. SME's fixed headshell-mounting holes made it possible to align my test cartridges identically in both arms then move the cartridges back and forth between them easily without having to go through a complete realignment each time. I did this with both my Dynavector DRT XV-1s and my Lyra Atlas cartridges, allowing easy and meaningful comparisons.

You'd be forgiven if, after looking at the Model 60's brutal stance, you thought it was likely to sound like the musical equivalent of a Vin Diesel acting performance: big on drama and action, but with some of the subtlety lost along the way. Nothing could be further from reality. This brute can dance on its tiptoes, with finesse and fine gradations of tonal color that go beyond even the formidable 30/2 Series V combination.

Take The Buena Vista Social Club, for example (Nonesuch WQ JP-2010-11). On the Cuban danzón song "Pablo Nuevo," everything is thrown into stark relief, providing a vivid sonic picture of the room it was recorded in, its dimensions, and the way the musicians are interacting. Listen to the explosive dynamic attack of the piano; that isn't about subtlety, but it is a place where the 60/VA combination has a clear edge over the 30/V pairing.

Low noise is usually the key to turntable transparency, and the Model 60 is exceptionally quiet. How much of that is due to the VA arm and how much to the new motor drive and the more massive chassis isn't entirely clear, but the 60/VA manages to stay out of the way of the music more emphatically than the 30/Series V combination.

Switching gears, I played the Classic Records reissue of Ella Fitzgerald's classic 1961 album Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie! (Classic Records V6-4053), specifically "Cry Me a River." The crystalline quality of Ella's voice was so famous that a Memorex tape ad from 40 years ago claimed that her voice could break a wine glass. I didn't have to deal with any breaking glass, but the clarity of Ella's voice on that record, heard through the Model 60/VA, was remarkable. I'm convinced that the nonresonant material used to make the VA arm has a lot to do with this, but it's impossible to be sure without a way to audition the VA arm independent of the Model 60. Perhaps at some point I'll get a chance to check out the Model 30 MK2 with its new AC motor drive; that should help give me a handle on how much of a role that part of the system plays in the improved performance I observed.

Intense dynamics and tight, powerful bass extension have long been hallmarks of SME turntables, and the Model 60 pushes that reputation even further. The low pipe-organ notes on Widor's famous Toccata from his 5th Organ Symphony on Encores à La Française (Telarc DG-10069) demonstrated just how powerful and extended bass on an LP can be. But it wasn't just the low end that impressed. The Model 60 also offers a sense of ease and effortlessness; the Model 30 sounds like it's having to work a little bit harder to bring you the power and the majesty of the Boston Symphony Hall pipe organ. The reverb tails as the sound slowly died away at the end of each piece had greater clarity on the Model 60, resulting in better insight into the dimensions and sheer volume of air inside Boston Symphony Hall.

Conclusion
With the Model 60, SME has managed to raise the bar on what can be achieved with their design philosophy. SME's "just the facts" approach won't make nasty-sounding records suddenly sound pretty, but its stunning ability to resolve information will make your records sound more real and ultimately more satisfying. This turntable is capable of extracting an astonishing amount of music from the record groove. It should be considered the new real-world reference against which other turntables can be judged. By "real world" I mean that, while it may cost as much as a nice car, it doesn't cost as much as a nice house, like some of its competitors do.

The Model 60 is also about as easy to use and unintimidating as a top-of-the-line turntable gets. On the downside, for certain tweaky users, the lack of swappable arms, of multiple arm capability, and of a 78rpm speed may rule the Model 60 out. Clearly, SME isn't trying to cater to the tweaky audiophile crowd. If anything, the Model 60 should be considered an heirloom turntable, as its build quality should allow it to continue making music for several generations. I'm not so lucky: My own time with the Model 60 was all too brief, and it was a sad day when two burly couriers arrived to carry the 200lb crate away.