SME Model 35 High End Turntable EISA Award 2026 2027 26082704

SME is proud to share the Model 35 is the winner of the EISA Best High-End Turntable 2026-2027 award. EISA, the Expert Imaging and Sound Association, is the world’s leading collective of specialist technology media: the editors of 51 specialist magazines and publications across 26 countries judge each category every year, and only one high-end turntable in the world carries the title.

Through the first half of 2026 those editors listened from Europe to Japan, Australia and North America, products crossing borders between member countries, before gathering to vote. And in the 44th edition of the awards, one high-end turntable carried the room: the SME Model 35, Best High-End Turntable 2026-2027.

The jury has spoken

OFFICIAL EISA Award citation

“New turntables from the iconic UK brand, SME, are rare indeed. For this update on its Model 30, SME has taken inspiration from its flagship Model 60, the older DC motor replaced by a 24-pole AC type and a two-box PSU sporting the turntable’s DSP motor drive and fine speed controls. This beautifully engineered deck features a 4.6kg alloy platter, a bearing with high-carbon steel spindle and sintered bronze bushings, and a sub-chassis that ‘hangs’ from 15 compound rubber rings within three columns. Underpinned by its superb speed stability, the Model 35 picks musical information from LP grooves without artifice or hesitation, the sound alive with vibrant detail and possessed of dynamics, solidity and sheer scale that sets the standard for high-end decks.”
EISA jury, Best High-End Turntable 2026-2027. August 2026

Of the three titles awarded to turntables each year, only one asks a product to stand against the finest in the world, where neither price nor convenience offers a defence. Best High-End Turntable is the title the SME Model 35 now holds for 2026-2027.

SME Model 35 wins EISA Best High-End Turntable 2026-2027 Award

The jury has spoken