How To Build A Record Player
SWR Handwerkskunst
Although streaming and the MP3 have changed the world of music, vinyl and turntables are still around. Analog sound is even celebrating a renaissance. In Altdorf, Baden-Württemberg, the company Wirth Tonmaschinenbau manufactures exclusive turntables by hand. Karl Wirth is a tinkerer and perfectionist. His belt-driven turntables are made of solid aluminum. CNC machines ensure micrometer precision. He and his team assemble twenty-five individual parts, each polished to a high gloss, to create a high-end device. Not only visually a masterpiece, but above all tonally. [more…]
The SWR television program “Handwerkskunst” shows the elaborate manufacture of the individual parts, the secrets behind the smooth running and warm sound of the turntable: the cast bearing, for example, which allows the ten-kilogram-heavy turntable to turn smoothly, or the installation of precision balls for the smooth movement of the tonearm.
Karl Wirth has more than twenty years of experience in building turntables, yet he always prefers to rely on measurable findings. The finished pieces are thoroughly tested by computer. The ultimate test, however, remains the human ear — because, over all these years, Karl Wirth has not lost his fascination for analog sound.
