SME / B&W

[Jason P]

I'm from you're neck of the woods Chris, born and bred in Lancing. When I was at college in Worthing I went to see someone connected with B&W who was donating an old video recorder to the college along with some other gear - when we went to collect it, we saw the most amazing room. It was his home cinema/hifi room - complete with curtains, cinema seats (this was long before the current fad for home setups) and the original recording console from Abbey Road wot the Beatles recorded on (according to this chap). I wish I could remember who and where it was (though I think it might've been near Steyning) but it was a fascinating place.

Jason

[Kris]

Just seen your sig Jason:

I used to have a Linn but I'm better now.

That has to be the best sig line I've ever seen. Brilliant!

[hifi_dave]

I visited the SME factory and Alistair's system twice and it was a very interesting experience.

The first time I went to the factory was just after they had introduced the Series III arm and I had said some unkind things about it in one of the mags I wrote for at the time. I remember the factory was spotlessly clean with not a thing out of place. I asked about the 'listening room' and was told that there wasn't one and that the arm had been designed and built without it ever being tried prior to production. Of, course, once it was made, a couple were installed in Alistair's system on SP10's, IIRC. The rest of the system was a heap of BGW amps into 14 Quad ESL 57's, mounted on frames to allow orientation.

Second time round is a bit hazey for me but I seem to remember only 6 or 8 Quad's, a heap of Krell and an LFD phono stage. Still a good day out though.

[The Grand Wazoo]

Ah yes, the big battery powered LFD.

[Kris]

the arm had been designed and built without it ever being tried prior to production.

I am truly shocked.

Dave, have you any lasting impressions of how the system sounded or the size of the room?

[Jonboy]

My wifes cousin visited his house to fix his telly or something in the seventies, and listened to his system with the Quads, he was duly impressed, another mate/dealer has also been there several times and had a listen, apparently Alistair fitted Van-Den-Dull carbon cables to it all and killed the sound
I will ask them both when i next see them to see if they know the room size, i'm sure i have seen pics of it somewhere, perhaps a magazine artical

[Rare Bird]

The best open day for me was J.A.Michell .. Freindship grew from then on.

[hifi_dave]

I am truly shocked.

Dave, have you any lasting impressions of how the system sounded or the size of the room?

I can only recall the first visit as the second time around, I believe, we had lunch first and it all got a bit fuzzy round the edges after that.

The system with 14 ESL'a sounded LARGE, very LARGE, which was fine with full orchestra but with solo voice etc, the image was far too big for comfort. Another major problem was that the amps were clipping like buggery on the loud parts. It was all a bit embarrassing really.

After all these years it is difficult to recall the room dimensions but I would guess around 60 feet square. I can remember a lovely view across a valley, the massive Chinese rug and the 'Blackamores' I believe they are called. Life size gents with Turbans and holding lamps.

[The Grand Wazoo]

The valley is called Clays & Fever Field - it's where they buried all the plague victims! It'd be a bit different now - they dug a lake in it (good) but also put a bypass on it (bad!)

[hifinutt]

i am extremely proud my b&w spearkers are british and made in worthing, they are doing great things , and reading what hi fi recently [rarely] its good to see their top recommendations for amps were british [cyrus and leema]