Robertson-Aikman, above all an engineer, was also a music lover able to construct his own system. Even the near-elliptical tonearm cut-out served as the default arm aperture for countless manufacturers that supplied armless decks, from Garrard to Thorens to Technics.įounded in 1946 by Robertson-Aikman, SME made scale models and parts for the model-engineering trade and hobbyist model builder. The SME 3009 was, and is, the most popular and influential quality tonearm in history. I trust TONE readers will immediately let me know if there’s a separate high-end tonearm that comes anywhere close to that figure. Robertson-Aikman felt the more affordable M2 was its true successor.Īfter four decades, total sales neared a half-million units. The cost difference between an SME Series II Improved and a Series V kept the former in production for its value as an entry-level product. It stayed in production until 2003-04, but not because the superior Series V supplanted it both models ran concurrently for almost 20 years. That’s the reason why boxed, second-hand examples in mint condition can command $500 at UK audio flea markets. Due to his unfailing honesty and integrity, SME founder Alastair Robertson-Aikman found it mildly disconcerting that the headshell-mounting system became known colloquially as the SME mount Ortofon deserved the credit.Īs a result of the arm’s ability to accept the heavy, low-compliance MCs we so love today, its performance is not that of a 50-year-old arm but of a still-viable contender. Moreover, the first headshells used with the 3009-prior to the arrival of the familiar, drilled-out SME design-were Ortofon shells with SME badges on the front. Indeed, many audiophiles still swear by it, and with good reason: Despite it being associated, in the minds of many, with high-compliance moving-magnet cartridges because of strong associations with Shure, it was, in fact, designed with the then-dominant, heavy, low-compliance Ortofon moving-coil cartridges in the SPU series.
Ignoring both xenophobia on the part of the British and envy on the part of everyone else, it remains the most successful high-end tonearm of all time, and is the template for superior “universal” tonearms able to handle a wide range of cartridges on an equally wide range of “motor units.” Depending on when you start the counting, last year marked the 50th anniversary of the SME 3009 tonearm.
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