Discover the best in record playing systems, turntables, phono stages and cartridges. We know a whole lot about record player set up and what sounds good because it’s what we enjoy. When you start to investigate a new record playing system today you’ll quickly find that you are spoilt for choice. We have listened to and sold many turntables over the years. What makes a system sound good comes down to some very simple principles – –the quality of design being most important….
When you start to investigate a new record playing system today you’ll quickly find that you are spoilt for choice. We have listened to and sold many turntables over the years. What makes a system sound good comes down to some very simple principles –the quality of design being most important. A record player is inherently simple – it just has to go around at a constant speed, and allow the stylus to do its job in terms extracting information from the groove of the record. The art is in actually achieving this to the standards we expect.
The cool thing about analogue is that there is an infinite amount of information on a LP record. The better the record playing system, the more you’ll hear.
The new ‘Wax Engine’ from Consonance is a turntable system that opens up choices and allows you to both easily fine tune and upgrade over time. If you consider yourself an analogue enthusiast, you owe it to yourself to learn about the new models from Well Tempered Labs. These are simply the finest sounding turntables we’ve heard, but are by no means the most costly. In fact many cartridges cost more. You could use the word revolutionary…
Since the introduction of the Well Tempered Amadeus turnable, WT Labs have expanded the range in both directions. The Simplex was introduced as an entry level version. The original Amadeus has enjoyed subtle revisions and upgrades and now with the introduction of the Symmetrex tonearm is officially MK2 . The better Amadeus GT has morphed into the GTA version – the acrylic plinth being replaced by a more massive and seriously engineered composite aluminium version. And now features the top of the line LTD/Symmetrex tonearm taking it’s performance well beyond that of the standard Amadeus.
Equal to the Amadeus GTA at the top of the range, the new flagship model VERSALEX is also upgraded with the Symmetrex. The plinth is a ‘Baltic Ply’ – in other words just like that used in Shahinian speakers which has some rather nice acoustic and mechanical properties – it’s finished in a handsome walnut veneer. The motor, platter and bearing may be identical to the Amadeus components but the Verselex has its own distinctive character. And then there’s The Royale…
If analogue is an enthusiasts market, then the new Consonance ‘Wax Engine’ turntable is very much a product designed for the hands-on enthusiast. Playing a record is always going to be a tactile exercise – select the album, take the LP out and place it on the platter, cue up the arm and go. So taking ownership of the setup and operation of your turntable is just a natural progression. The ‘Wax Engine’ is designed for the value conscious analogue enthusiast who wants to wring the best possible sound out of their system. It’s a turntable system that opens up choices and allows you to both easily fine tune and upgrade over time.
