SME Model 30/12A

Below is the brilliant and much loved Model 30/2A which has continued to be produced virtually unchanged for nearly twenty years, although recent power supply upgrades have improved performance considerably.

The SME Model 30/A was first produced in 1991 and has become the bench mark for analogue replay. The introduction of the Model 30/2A with its vastly improved DC motor and a `state of the art` power supply transformed the performance making it THE most highly sort after turntable. This final link in the chain has made it "The best turntable of all time", this quotation is from magazine articles and highly satisfied customers the world over.

The list price of the Model 30/2 without tonearm is £11,628.54. With UK VAT at 17.5% £13,663.53.

The list price of the Model 30/2A with the Gold lined, Print and Details (GPD) Series V tonearm is £13,613.58. With UK VAT at 17.5% £15,995.96.

Optional extra`s include the "top of the range" factory fitted Pure Silver Internal wiring at £155.00. A Pure Silver South West Analogue Silver Litz audio lead and a South West Analogue 5mm "Cast" acrylic lift off turntable cover. P.O.A.

Electronics have advanced significantly over the years and more upgrades have been made to the 8 bit computer controlled power supply unit, to give the turntable even better speed control along with greater motor torque, subsequently sound quality is elevated to a new level. This new psu drives a 3-phase, 6 pulse inductance motor with 8 pole Neodymium magnets and 3 integrated hall position sensors. The new electronic controller uses a high performance microcomputer optimised for motor control. The Hall position sensors on the motor provide accurate feedback to the microcontroller allowing very accurate and stable speed control which encompasses three speeds 33.3 - 45 - 78 rpm. The reference oscillator is a 10MHz quartz crystal which is multiplied by 4 to produce an internal microprocessor clock speed of 40MHz. The driver stage has CMOS buffers/Mosfet drivers with a 1.2 amp peak drive capability. The power stage is six high power complementary Mosfets in a 3 Phase Bridge Driver configuration. Closed loop speed control is implemented using a pseudo sine wave commutation sequence and a proportional-plus-integral (PI) alogorithm. The new design incorporates a four layer surface mount technology PCB with on-board user adjustable controls for all three speeds. It also features a micro-fine speed adjustment with a Locked to speed facility for complete stability.

The Model 30/2A & 30/12A are designed to replay the vinyl record "exactly" the way it was recorded in a totally natural uncoloured way. Every components purpose is to extract every piece of information from the disc whilst neither adding its own character or removing any information, however small. A truly uncoloured, natural sounding turntable that brings music to life, particularly successful on live and acoustic music.

Weighing in at 92lbs (42kg) the M30/2A has a platter of 15 lbs (7kg). High mass, damping and isolation are the important criteria that strongly influenced the design of this turntable. For instance all of the major components, including the upper and lower chassis, both faces of the platter, the driven pulley, the bearing housing, even the inner case of the power supply are all damped with "Isodamp", a unique material used on numerous space projects. Remarkable isolation is achieved with the unique non-resonant suspension system, no resonant springs are employed in this design. The suspension uses specially formulated rubber "O" rings, 12 in each corner supplemented by a viscous damping bath to control unneccessary movement. The "O" ring suspension only occasionally needs adjusting, this is approximately two minutes work. They will need replacing in time, from our experience probably in about seven or eight years. This is not expensive and should take about ten minutes.

The 13" platter is supported by a massive precision engineered spindle matched with sintered bronze bearings machined to incredibly tight tolerances, indeed a specially formulated light lubricating oil has to be used which is itself diluted in order to achieve the required movement. The bearing housing is sealed for life as no adjustment is neccessary and wear is negligable. This turntable offers every essential ingredient neccessary to reproduce accurately the sound of live music, ie: high mass, very effective damping and excellent isolation. Plus the most precise speed control available, and of course the ultimate in engineering and know-how. It needs no tweeks, or gimmicks, requires no guru`s, just a little time spent setting it up by following the easy to read instructions is all that is required. This makes it the ultimate fuss free, natural sounding turntable, built to last a life time and truly an engineering masterpiece. If you are looking for colouration this turntable is not for you.

Ilustrated above is our own Silver Litz audio lead for much improved sound quality. This is available at no extra cost on all new SME tonearms. For the SME Model 30/2A the straight line 5 pin din plug is replaced with a special SME right angled plug.

Both the thickness of the sub-chassis and the arm mounting board means a special version of the SME 5 pin Din plug attached to the audio lead is required. Unique to the Model 30 a vertical entry lead is used, this is essential as the standard horizontal entry lead cannot be accomadated. The standard issue audio lead fitted to all SME tonearms we regard as a modestly priced starter lead and needs to be up-graded for the full performance of the Model 30/2A to be realized. To replace this we have our own Silver Litz lead with various permutations of plugs to suit all applications.

To alleviate the problems of the standard lead and its 5 pin Din attachment to the tonearm we can supply a phono socket bracket assembly that fits into the two pre-drilled holes in the main chassis, this allows one of our high quality phono to phono audio leads to be used, see pictures below. This requires the wiring, preferably MCS150 to be wired straight through the tonearm to the phono socket bracket (see illustration below of the Gold plated Series V). We suggest the optional MCS 150 Silver internal wiring (standard fitment on the Series V-12, Gold Series V and 312S arms only) should be fitted to all SME arms to release the full performance.

As can be seen from the illustration below, this particular Gold plated Series V has been modified by SME to take the MCS150 internal wiring to the phono socket bracket by removing the undercarriage. This makes this tonearm unsuitable for any other application.

WARNING: MCS 150 is a Silver internal harness wire and is very delicate and is easily damaged and is also un-screened so please be aware of these two potential problems.

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The middle photo shows the two pre-drilled holes for phono socket conversion, top picture shows LFD Sovereign Silver audio lead matched to the SME factory supplied phono sockets.

Series V Gold with factory supplied phono socket bracket conversion wired with MCS 150.

Options :

MCS 150 Silver internal wiring for any new tonearm at £155.00.

S.W.A Silver Litz audio lead.

S.W. A. 5mm "Cast" acrylic lift-off cover for added turntable protection, SME logo optional..

Some of the black chrome brass items on the Model 30/12A & 30/2A can be ordered in 22 carat gold for that personal touch.

For Hi-Fi that brings you closer to the original sound