diff --git a/devito/arch/archinfo.py b/devito/arch/archinfo.py
index afaa49d86f..3b5e647c50 100644
--- a/devito/arch/archinfo.py
+++ b/devito/arch/archinfo.py
@@ -715,7 +715,9 @@ class AppleArm(Arm):
     def march(self):
         sysinfo = run(["sysctl", "-n", "machdep.cpu.brand_string"],
                       stdout=PIPE, stderr=DEVNULL).stdout.decode("utf-8")
-        return sysinfo.split(' ')[1].lower()
+        mx = sysinfo.split(' ')[1].lower()
+        # Currently clang only supports up to m2
+        return min(mx, 'm2')
 
 
 class Amd(Cpu64):
diff --git a/devito/arch/compiler.py b/devito/arch/compiler.py
index 35f522a0b8..03f49a84ba 100644
--- a/devito/arch/compiler.py
+++ b/devito/arch/compiler.py
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@
 
 
 @memoized_func
-def sniff_compiler_version(cc):
+def sniff_compiler_version(cc, allow_fail=False):
     """
     Detect the compiler version.
 
@@ -43,8 +43,11 @@ def sniff_compiler_version(cc):
     except UnicodeDecodeError:
         return Version("0")
     except FileNotFoundError:
-        error("The `%s` compiler isn't available on this system" % cc)
-        sys.exit(1)
+        if allow_fail:
+            return Version("0")
+        else:
+            error("The `%s` compiler isn't available on this system" % cc)
+            sys.exit(1)
 
     if ver.startswith("gcc"):
         compiler = "gcc"
@@ -210,15 +213,6 @@ def __init__(self, **kwargs):
         else:
             raise NotImplementedError("Unsupported platform %s" % platform)
 
-        if self.suffix is not None:
-            try:
-                self.version = Version(str(float(self.suffix)))
-            except (TypeError, ValueError):
-                self.version = Version(self.suffix)
-        else:
-            # Knowing the version may still be useful to pick supported flags
-            self.version = sniff_compiler_version(self.CC)
-
         self.__init_finalize__(**kwargs)
 
     def __init_finalize__(self, **kwargs):
@@ -237,6 +231,20 @@ def __new_with__(self, **kwargs):
     def name(self):
         return self.__class__.__name__
 
+    @property
+    def version(self):
+        if self.suffix is not None:
+            try:
+                version = Version(str(float(self.suffix)))
+            except (TypeError, ValueError):
+                version = Version(self.suffix)
+        else:
+            # Knowing the version may still be useful to pick supported flags
+            allow_fail = isinstance(self, CustomCompiler)
+            version = sniff_compiler_version(self.CC, allow_fail=allow_fail)
+
+        return version
+
     def get_version(self):
         result, stdout, stderr = call_capture_output((self.cc, "--version"))
         if result != 0:
diff --git a/examples/seismic/model.py b/examples/seismic/model.py
index eb78d97ed3..d0ca897d03 100644
--- a/examples/seismic/model.py
+++ b/examples/seismic/model.py
@@ -167,7 +167,7 @@ def physical_params(self, **kwargs):
         return {i.name: kwargs.get(i.name, i) or i for i in known}
 
     def _gen_phys_param(self, field, name, space_order, is_param=True,
-                        default_value=0):
+                        default_value=0, **kwargs):
         if field is None:
             return default_value
         if isinstance(field, np.ndarray):