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News Article: Cadence Group acquires SME, then SME acquires Garrard
Announcement dates: December 2016. British Engineering And Hifi
Brand SME Ltd is acquired By Cadence. May 2018. British
Engineering And Hifi Brand SME Ltd acquires Garrard from IGB Gradiente
S.A. of Brazil.
Cadence Audio SA is based in Pune, India. The founder/owner of Cadence Audio is Ajay Shirke. A well known serious audiophile. Ajay, the son of B.G. Shirke, a noted Indian industrialist, started Cadence in 1991 by establishing a manufacturing facility in Pune and then began the design/mfr of hi-end electrostatic speaker systems.
In recent years Cadence Audio has acquired controlling interest in
other noteworthy hi-end audio brand names including Spendor Audio
Systems , Siltech Audio, Crystal Cables and The Audio Lounge in London.
SME products are to be distributed through Padood, one of the
leading distributors of hi-end audio products in the UK.
The
Garrard acquisition included the purchase of Loricraft Audio, which had
been using the Garrard brand name under license to IGB Gradiente SA of
Brazil and offering service and support for existing Garrard 301 and 401
players since 1997 -- as well as developing and manufacturing the highly
respected Garrard 501 and 601 players.
In one of his show
reports for the Munich Hi-end Audio show 2018 Art Dudley of Stereophile
meets Ajay Shirke and asks him the following: "So When will the Garrard
301 turntable go back into production?"
Mr. Shirke's reply:
"About a year to a year-and-a-half from now." (editor's note; That is
the short version, to read the full version of Art's show report visit
Stereophile online)
My thoughts on all of this is that
Garrard afficionados world wide will be rejoicing over this news. Who
better to manufacture the Garrard 301 than SME in their state of the art
manufacturing facility!
-webmaster