Michael Fremer

For a company whose initials stand for “Scale Model Equipment” the massive turntables SME builds are anything but. The company, founded in post WW II England, began as a manufacturer of scale models, then popular in the engineering trade.

SME founder Alastair Robertson-Aikman was an audio hobbyist who one day decided to apply his engineering acumen and put to work the talented designers and machinists in his employ to produce a tone arm for his own use.

Rhino originally released this material in 1999 as a 7 CD box set, but to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the original Fun House release the label returned to the original tapes and Bernie Grundman cut lacquers directly from them for the original album and for the live concert LP. The outtakes are sourced from hi-res files. That's 21st century progress! The $399.98 15 180 gram LP plus two 7" 45 singles set is limited to 1970 copies and is scheduled for July 17th release.

Back in 2005 I reviewed what was then the $1500 Jasmine LP-2 MM/MC phono preamplier. It was a two box unit with an umbilical between the power supply and the signal path circuitry. The 70dB gain MC input was commendably quiet and the unit sounded pretty good but I couldn’t justify the performance for the price.

The Tenth Annual Manila Hi-Fi Show took place November 9th and 10th against a back-drop of an impending Typhoon.