30 year old SME 30/2

Is it available for your direct inspection or only from photos? If the former, you are in a good position to evaluate it for functional defects. Check suspension and platter speed stability. Difference in cost between 90s and now is purely a function of the marketplace. I’d wager there are no important functional or structural differences that are not available as upgrades.

$45K for that TT! What a rip off price! Buy the $4K Technics.

an older thread about lack of response from SME

 

I worked for a dealer selling those tables when they came out

 

 

Long story short nicely made the sound was good not amazing

 

 

There are way better tables our favorite table will smoke the sme

 

In 40 years of sudio Sales and setup only two tables stand out gor extremely good sound quality snd a uperior design

 

The original townshebd rock

 

And the Merrill Williams real

 

The merill table 12k sounded as good as a 40k Kronos

 

Dave and Troy

AUDIO INTELLECT NJ

MERRILL DEALERS

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 40 years of sudio Sales and setup only two tables stand out gor extremely good sound quality snd a uperior design

The original townshebd rock

And the Merrill Williams real

Yep - I used to sell the original Rock TT. It could sound good if you were one of the lucky folk who did not get a wobbly platter or an Excalabur tonearm that "dropped its bearings". I still have a letter from Max with instructions on how to "fix" the arm every time the bearings dropped.

As for the Merrill Wiiliams - I think it was one of Rube Goldbergs favourite toys.

The SME 30 properly set up should have smoked at least the Merrill.