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Let's face it-SME has done little or no innovation for decades with their tonearms. They are damned good but no longer among the very best. Their arms imo need to be carefully matched the design of the table for best results-true of most tonearms but even more with SME arms. SME seems to be bent on expanding their product line of tables such as the one recently featured with the built-in Nagra phono stage and outboard power supply. Their decision to market the Garrard 301 only as a complete turntable/arm/plinth combination ties into this. My point being: this does not surprise me in the least. I doubt very many enthusiasts will be crying over their pretzels and beer.

The sad decline of a once great company.

This is a silly and counterproductive decision. I own three of their arms that I bought new on sale at ridiculously low prices several years ago; 2 SME IV's and an M2-9, which I got from Audiogon new in the box for very little. Only one of the arms is mounted on an SME table the others are on different tables. I always used to enjoy listening to different tables like Avid and Oracle with SME mounted arms as it allowed me to not only gauge the table with an arm I am familiar with but made a potential purchase that much easier because I had one I could use. That has now ended. I also pity the manufacturers that made armboards for SME like Linn with its Kore and others like Avid who machined theirs for SME arms. In short I think it is a very sad day for analogue hifi and very misguided decision on SME. Pity.

This is a silly and counterproductive decision. I own three of their arms that I bought new on sale at ridiculously low prices several years ago; 2 SME IV's and an M2-9, which I got from Audiogon new in the box for very little. Only one of the arms is mounted on an SME table the others are on different tables. I always used to enjoy listening to different tables like Avid and Oracle with SME mounted arms as it allowed me to not only gauge the table with an arm I am familiar with but made a potential purchase that much easier because I had one I could use. That has now ended. I also pity the manufacturers that made armboards for SME like Linn with its Kore and others like Avid who machined theirs for SME arms.

I think it is also counterproductive for SME themselves, I bought my SME table only after first buying their arms and deciding afterwards to purchase their table, it would not have happened if I did not have the SME IV in my possession first.

In short I think it is a very sad day for analogue hifi and very misguided decision on SME. Pity.

I think this is entirely a luxury and exclusivity play by SME and the current owner. They want to limit availability to SME turntables as a sign of exclusivity. I wouldn't be surprised if we see the lower end SME arms appearing on new Garrard tables. As to if this will work or add to their bottom line is to be determined by I am skeptical.

Is when the Swatch group cut off supply of movements to other watch manufacturers to keep exclusivity of the ETA movement but Swatch reversed that decision several years later funnily enough.

I own a SME 3009 arm with a Lyra Delos cartridge on a refurbished Thorens turntable, which is a wonderful combination. I have a suggestion for Michael: It would be interesting to provide your audience with a systematic review of tonearms that are affordable (especially for younger aspiring audiophiles) and can fill the SME niche because of their discontinuation. Could become a series or presentations.

Was how you adjusted overhang. I can't tell you in my early days how I used to obsess and over obsess as to whether or not that cartridge was perfectly aligned to my Dennesen alignment gauge. With the SME all that stressing ended for me. Until I purchased my SME arms, I bought the SHURE V15 MK V with its awesome alignment gauge that took the guesswork out. But for all other cartridges the SME has been king for setting up and forgetting.

"The growth of our turntable business and commitment to higher production levels means that we cannot continue both streams"

Yes you can its called expansion. This is such a BS excuse. They must make more profit off of turntable sales and selling tone arms OEM and in retail probably took away from the higher profit end of their business.

Spend your money on new lps or old lps

Most SME arms were bought for use on other than SME turntables which were I thought a relatively small market in comparison. They probably trashed demand for the arms by doubling prices. I predict this strategy will fail and another great british company will bite the dust. I find the new stylised integrated turntable models pretty repulsive. Likely they will discontinue the old 30/20/15 models soon. They still have to make arms for the turntables so why not sell them separately? Even linn will sell you arms still and they are not as good as SME. It's impossible to buy arms made to their standards for sensible money. I'm wondering how Michell and Avid will respond as their designs relied on SME arms as a synergistic match?

I’m sure that SME will regret thus decision but there are a number of British manufacturers of tonearms still around such as; Hadcock, Helius Designs, Rega, Origin Live, Linn (although SME does some work for Linn) Michell is a modified Rega and so are Moth. Not forgetting Roksan & Wilson Benesch.

The Helius Designs tonearms look very interesting http://www.heliusdesigns.co.uk/index.html

But that’s the trouble when companies get new masters they don’t always understand the implications of their decisions until it is too late. I’m sure at the budget end of the scale Project, Rega & Jelco will have increased sales!

I am guessing that their consumer TT arm business has not been that great so they feel they are not losing much. Rega and others will win if they haven't already. Maybe time for a 12" Rega arm?

For over 60 years, SME has been THE tonearm company, redefining the role of the "pickup" arm several times over the decades. SME arms are beautifully built, with a "camera" finish that makes almost every other arm look like it was built in somebody's basement. Sure, people can argue about their ultimate performance, and the lack of azimuth on some models, but you can't argue about the build quality, fit and finish, and longevity of an SME. The fact that they're going to continue making the arms, but only sell them with a turntable, makes about as much sense as if Ferrari said they would only sell their cars to people who also buy a $10 million Ferrari house to go with them. I'll be hanging on to my Model 30/2 and Series IV.Vi

nuff said.