WJA Electron Audio

WJA Electron Audio

Turntable

Scheu analog provided the basis of this turntable, with a little inspiration from Galibier and Teres school of thought.

The chassis is a teardrop kind of shape with facility for 2 arm mounts. It is constructed from 5 layers of 15mm MDF.  The middle 3 are hollowed out to form an elongated 3 spoke steering wheel shape and are filled with sand to deaden the whole thing.

Weighs in at about 11 kgs on it’s own

Platter is Scheu’s 80mm design at about 7.5kgs with the ceramic ball bearing and teflon thrust plate inverted bearing.

I tried the sand box on the advice of Galibier designs in the US…  This was amazing.  I was already using a bicycle inner tube with the granite slab on top, but it appears air in tubes causes a resonance somewhere in upper bass.  The sand box removed it and the bass became more extended.  Opened the vocals out a bit too.. Magic for the price of some sand and MDF.  I might make another for the pre-amp.  Another 20kgs of mass.

Motor pod is from BIX TT from DIY Hi-Fi supply.

And I use a Mat 2 from boston audio and a Clearaudio record weight.

You can merrily bash the record whilst playing.  I do that as a party piece along with playing my 1959 HMV Symphony Fantastique (no progress in recording in 50 years) to the non analogue believers :  who normally leave converted.

To do:  Upgrade monofilament to tape drive or maybe direct drive… Or both.  Tape drive just needs a new pulley so that will be first.

TT with the previous arm (Pierre Lurnè)

Looks good at night too!

ARM

Kuzma Stogi with a Shelter 7000.  Until recently I used my old Pierre Lurnè unipivot, which is actually very very good for the money.  Close to the Kuzma…  but I needed to liberate it in order to sell the Pierre Lurnè TT.  (done)

  • Spare cartridges
    • Shelter 501 II. Bought a damaged model on ebay and had it repaired. Very fine cartridge but superceded by Shelter 7000.. which is unbelievable.  Dynamics, detail, low noise etc etc  The 501 will become the spare after a refurb.
    • Audio Technica ART1 (bought on a business trip to Japan many years ago)  Very nice cartridge, esp. on top end, but not as all round a performer as Shelter 501.  IMO
    • Goldring Gerard Louis.  Limited edition. Flawed but almost right.  Maybe I’ll have it retipped and discover it really does work.  There is about 5 times the amount of glue required to hold the tip on.  Subsequently it misstracks a lot, but sounds promising.  (more for the to do list)

I did try building a Schroeder style arm and it almost worked.   In fact it sounded truely great in the mids.  BUT –  I didn’t get the vertical axis just correct so the azimuth changed along the record…  Maybe I’ll get a proper machine shop to do that bit again for me and re-visit.  However it was enough to seriously impress me and were I a millionaire (or at least much richer) I’d be out to the nearest Schroeder shop tout de suite.

Kuzma Stogi with Shelter 501 II

TT with the previous arm (Pierre Lurnè)

Looks good at night too!

Turntable

Scheu analog provided the basis of this turntable, with a little inspiration from Galibier and Teres school of thought.

The chassis is a teardrop kind of shape with facility for 2 arm mounts. It is constructed from 5 layers of 15mm MDF.  The middle 3 are hollowed out to form an elongated 3 spoke steering wheel shape and are filled with sand to deaden the whole thing.

Weighs in at about 11 kgs on it’s own

Platter is Scheu’s 80mm design at about 7.5kgs with the ceramic ball bearing and teflon thrust plate inverted bearing.

I tried the sand box on the advice of Galibier designs in the US…  This was amazing.  I was already using a bicycle inner tube with the granite slab on top, but it appears air in tubes causes a resonance somewhere in upper bass.  The sand box removed it and the bass became more extended.  Opened the vocals out a bit too.. Magic for the price of some sand and MDF.  I might make another for the pre-amp.  Another 20kgs of mass.

Motor pod is from BIX TT from DIY Hi-Fi supply.

And I use a Mat 2 from boston audio and a Clearaudio record weight.

You can merrily bash the record whilst playing.  I do that as a party piece along with playing my 1959 HMV Symphony Fantastique (no progress in recording in 50 years) to the non analogue believers :  who normally leave converted.

To do:  Upgrade monofilament to tape drive or maybe direct drive… Or both.  Tape drive just needs a new pulley so that will be first.

Kuzma Stogi with Shelter 501 II

ARM

Kuzma Stogi with a Shelter 7000.  Until recently I used my old Pierre Lurnè unipivot, which is actually very very good for the money.  Close to the Kuzma…  but I needed to liberate it in order to sell the Pierre Lurnè TT.  (done)

  • Spare cartridges
    • Shelter 501 II. Bought a damaged model on ebay and had it repaired. Very fine cartridge but superceded by Shelter 7000.. which is unbelievable.  Dynamics, detail, low noise etc etc  The 501 will become the spare after a refurb.
    • Audio Technica ART1 (bought on a business trip to Japan many years ago)  Very nice cartridge, esp. on top end, but not as all round a performer as Shelter 501.  IMO
    • Goldring Gerard Louis.  Limited edition. Flawed but almost right.  Maybe I’ll have it retipped and discover it really does work.  There is about 5 times the amount of glue required to hold the tip on.  Subsequently it misstracks a lot, but sounds promising.  (more for the to do list)

I did try building a Schroeder style arm and it almost worked.   In fact it sounded truely great in the mids.  BUT –  I didn’t get the vertical axis just correct so the azimuth changed along the record…  Maybe I’ll get a proper machine shop to do that bit again for me and re-visit.  However it was enough to seriously impress me and were I a millionaire (or at least much richer) I’d be out to the nearest Schroeder shop tout de suite.

Important links

Contact

WJA Electron S.A.R.L.
216 Route du Mas de Soulié
46230 Cremps, France
International VAT Number: FR08503863136

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