1946 was a year full of firsts. The United Nations met for the first time in London. The U.S. Army bounced the first radar signal off the moon. And the first bikini bathing suit debuted in Paris. It was also the year the Scale Model Equipment Company, later SME Limited, a small company founded by Alastair Robertson-Aikman, began to produce exacting scale models and parts for the scale model industry. SME would later move on to make precision parts for aircraft instruments, business machines, Rolls-Royce, and submarine industries.
SME is deeply established in audio’s roots, dating back to 1959 when the first SME pickup arm was engineered and produced. Analog turntable pickup arms must be incredibly precise devices: the variations in the groove of a record that store music are so small that the tiniest error in tracking is magnified by the entire analog playback process. If a turntable doesn’t keep good time, adds noise, or fails to track properly, the music is distorted. Turntable assemblies require extremely precise parts and engineering to perform their best and allow the music to engage the listener. There is no margin for error.
