A Turntable History Question


In late 1981, or January of 1982, I took a couple of my ward sisters out to the theatre (it was a Brian Rix farce at the Apollo). Returning to Harrow, I dropped off one of them and was invited in, where I saw her husband's turntable. It was suspended at each corner by many rubber bands, and years later I assumed it was an SME that I had seen. Now I know that SME were not making turntables at that time, I wonder what it was?

dogberry

So you had a well hung rather than well suspended turntable?

I have a mental picture of exactly what you are talking about but only the SME 30 comes to mind (c. 1990)

In my book, it is London to a brick it was an SME Model 30 turntable, except for the date!  The Model 30 was released in 1991, not 1981.

The Model 30 was SME's first commercially released turntable, and it cost megabucks (well 9,000 quid in 1991!).  Weighing more than 42-kgs the table featured a suspended sub chassis, hanging from four pylons like a big-top circus tent.  The pylons each had 15 rubber rings and were also fluid damped.

I was a pretty heavy audiophile back in late 70’s and 80’s and never ran across factory suspension with rubber bands back in the day.  I’d say he most likely set this up on his own.  I, on the other had, had my system in a completely separate room away from any feed back from listening room.