Philosophy
New music from your records
The Well Tempered Lab Amadeus range of turntables are designed and built with one goal in mind; maximum enjoyment from your analog record collection. WTL unique designs, most of which are patent registered let nothing stand in the way of you and your music. WTL approach, which may on the face of it seem simplistic is in fact the reverse and has taken countless hours of research and thinking outside the square. For instance, whilst many manufacturers labor endlessly to design the perfect tonearm bearing, WTL simply eliminate it!
Designers Statement
In 1977, The Bruel and Company of Denmark published a landmark paper concerning the mechanical stability of high fidelity turntables: The Audible Effects of Mechanical Resonances in Turntables. Using the then new technology of Fast Fourier Transform analysis, Bruel and Kjær analyzed a high end turntable to determine the importance of a turntable’s mechanical stability. The conclusion of the B&K research was that a high fidelity tonearm should have a low effective mass and be mechanically damped to a Q of 0.5 to eliminate the side-band distortion caused by mechanical instability. Side-band distortion is particularly objectionable to human hearing. As a result of this conclusion, many light weight tonearms were developed but the issue of damping was largely or completely ignored. There is a good reason for ignoring this requirement, damping is not simple to implement and requires a new approach to tone-arm design. During William Firebaugh research when designing Amadeus he has concentrated on achieving a very high degree of mechanical stability and has been required to use novel techniques and materials. William Firebaugh is pleased to report that the efforts have resulted in a stable turntable design that is simple in appearance but has a deep foundation of experiments and technology. During the experiments, William Firebaugh have constructed many prototypes, perhaps as many as fifty.
Controlling The Mechanical Resonances Of The Tone-Arm
The Well Tempered tone-arm does not have a bearing in the normal sense. Many tone-arm bearings use high quality ball bearings that have clearances in the low micron range. However, that is where all the action takes place. The Amadeus bearing has zero clearance and damping for un-rivaled performance. The tone-arm is constructed with a golf ball partially immersed in high viscosity silicone fluid. Golf balls are very precisely made and are well-suited for this application. The degree of damping is adjustable.
Controlling The Resonance Within The Arm Tube
The 10.5 inch arm tube of Amadeus (9” on Simplex) is filled with a special grade of sand to eliminate any resonances within the tube. This technique is very effective and is unique to all Well Tempered designs.
Rotational Stability Of The Spindle
The Well Tempered round spindle rotates in a triangle hole of Teflon and the corner of the triangle is oriented to the motor. This arrangement causes the spindle to rotate in a zero clearance bearing. If the spindle is in the normal round hole, the contact with the bearing surface is made of one point, a condition which can cause rotational instability. With the round spindle rotating in a triangle hole, contact is made at two points resulting in zero clearance and a high degree of stability.
Bearing Noise
The Well Tempered Lab bearing uses a Teflon thrust bearing. The stainless steel spindle has a precision point and rests into a small hole in the Teflon thrust bearing to achieve very low noise.
Acrylic Platter
The Well Tempered Lab platter is acrylic which William Firebaugh have found to be very suitable for this purpose. In addition to having desirable mechanical properties, this material is relatively heavy resulting in increased moment of inertia for lower flutter and wow.
Drive Belt
During the research, William Firebaugh measured hundreds of belts of various types, using flutter and wow as the criteria. None have the excellent characteristics of the Well Tempered Lab belt. The belt is a polyester filament and has a diameter of 0.1 mm (0.004 inches). To use this belt requires a knot and this may normally cause a problem. WTL have overcome this problem with a motor pulley of a special design to accommodate the knot. In addition to being a superior belt, this material is widely available and easy to replace. William Firebaugh tested the durability of this belt with a test of fifty days continuous operation with no effect.
Motor and Motor Drive
WTL use a small dc motor driven by a torque servo controller of WTL own design. The motor is mounted to the plinth and is very effectively mechanically decoupled by a ring of isolation material. The combination of belt, motor, motor drive electronics, and isolation results in low flutter and wow. In fact, the lowest we have ever measured.