J.R. Boisclair of WAM Engineering LLC, the manufacturers of the WallyTools Analog Setup Tools, from Santa Rosa, CA, flew over to Greece to tour the Agnew Analog Precision Engineering Laboratory and discuss highly technical topics with J. I. Agnew. We had the great pleasure of using the WallyTools to set up the turntable at the Agnew Mansion and will be writing more about these in a dedicated post soon! The visit wouldn't be complete without a walk by the beach and some fine Greek cuisine. Stay tuned for more exciting news! Photography by Kate Agnew.
After many long years of research and development and long field testing of the various components, we are proud to present the Agnew Analog Reference Instrument Type 612, a brand new disk mastering lathe, now available to order.
Presenting a custom record centering accessory, intended as a very quick and simple way of centering vinyl records with oversize center holes.
This compact and lightweight accessory is simply placed on the center spindle of your turntable over the record and twisted, positioning the sharp edge between the spindle and record hole, taking up any excessive clearance.
The Agnew Analog Reference Instrument Type 6016 is a fully adjustable scribing platform that will work on any make and model of lathe of any vintage, with a 16", 14", or 12" platter, for 14", 12". 10" or 7" records. Scribing platforms are typically used by mastering engineers, to rest their hand while scribing the catalog number, their signature, or secret messages, in the land around the lead-out groove spiral, without touching the surface of the fragile lacquer master disk. Remember, it is your signature that should be proudly displayed on that master disk, not your fingerprints! Significant quantity discounts available, especially on orders over 100 pieces. Please enquire for details.
Repairing an SA-74 suspension unit, from a Neumann VMS-70 disk mastering lathe, which arrived with the head lift/drop lever jammed in the down position, preventing the top lid from being removed! The Neumann SX-74 stereophonic motional feedback cutter head was still attached, as it had been glued to the mount adapter, which can only be removed from the suspension unit by opening the top lid! Several mechanical and electrical repairs, adjustment/calibration procedures and even a bit of machining on the 1961 Moore Special Tools Jig Borer later, it was fully brought back to original specifications!
As part of the 5th Craft Studio event, held online via Zoom and organized by the Craft Research Network, J.l. Agnew will be holding a presentation of his work at the Agnew Analog Precision Engineering Laboratory. The event is scheduled for Friday, September 16, 2022, at 17:00 CET. Registration (free of charge) at least a week in advance of the event is required for participation. Registration form: https://craftresearch.org/join The Craft Research Network is an international, multidisciplinary research network for academics and others with an interest in craft. Craft Studio 5 is hosted by Rene Wiedner (Associate Professor, University of Warwick, UK) and Marleen Hofland-Mol (PhD Candidate, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, NL).
The Agnew Analog Reference Instrument Type 631 is a high performance direct drive motor, designed for professional disk mastering lathes and turntables. It is usually positioned on the floor under the lathe or turntable, driving the platter directly by means of a long driveshaft, similar to the drive system of the Neumann VMS-70 and several other professional disk mastering systems.
Some time ago we were asked to repair a vintage Westrex 2B feedback cutter head. As with all Western Electric and Westrex products, their cutter heads were beautifully made and represented the state of the art in their time. Not only did they sound great, they also looked aesthetically pleasing, with curved lines that were not a trivial task to manufacture, in the days before CNC machine tools, CAD software and pocket calculators!
We have developed a range of precision machined driveshafts that can be supplied in any length required for your applications, with end diameters to your specification. Each end could be made a different diameter, if required, and we can also supply a useful range of accessories, such as constant velocity flexible couplers, vibration dampers, soft-start clutches and mounting flanges, to suit your application.
A good machine spindle is one of the factors defining the accuracy attainable from rotating machinery. This applies equally to machine tools used in industrial manufacturing and to disk recording and mastering lathes, used to make phonograph records.
At Agnew Analog Reference Instruments, we use some of the finest and most accurate industrial manufacturing machine tools ever made, to build some of the finest and most accurate disk recording and mastering equipment ever made, so we have had to learn a thing or three about machine spindles along the way.
For many long years, J. I. Agnew has been examining, adjusting, repairing and replacing bearing systems of all kinds, from disk recording lathes and turntables to tape machines, high precision machine tools, measurement instruments, industrial equipment and all manners of motor vehicles, from passenger cars to heavy trucks. Over the past few years, he has designed and machined countless bearing units to replace worn or damaged units on a diverse range of disk recording lathes and machine tools. Valuable experience was gained, which along with his solid engineering background, was put to good use in improving his designs further and further, up until the current stage of development was reached.
The ultimate vacuum platter is finally here, and it is very reasonably priced. After three years of exhaustive research and development and several prototypes of different versions, along with field testing, we have finally arrived at what we believe is the most advanced and accurate vacuum platter ever made.
Available in 14" and 12" versions, our Type 6114 and Type 6112 Reference Instruments are now available to order, in any quantity. Do you want 100 of them? We'll make them, and threw in a quantity discount as well!
We now have hundreds of heater wire terminals in stock, as we are in the process of stocking up for the manufacturing of our new stereophonic cutter head. Since these items have been "unobtanium" for a long while now, we are happy to offer these individually or in pairs to anyone needing them for their vintage cutter heads, or those trying their luck at making DIY heads.
The Agnew Analog Reference Instrument Type 192 is a minimalist, industrial-grade stylus heater supply unit, designed and built to last forever. It is a current-regulated design, set at the factory for 550 mA, in an ultra-ruggedized configuration, for maximum reliability in constant-duty environments, when downtime is not an option.
The Agnew Analog Research and Development laboratory makes a major breakthrough in the fight against the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic!
It is not a vaccine and it probably won’t do much against the virus itself (although it has been suggested that it could have an effect not unlike the yodeling of Slim Whitman upon the aliens in Tim Burton’s “Mars Attacks”, either on the virus or on humans, or both), but will at least give you something to do while you wait it out.
The Agnew Analog Reference Instrument Type 8001 is a unique electrochemical synthesizer, generating strange sounds through chemical reactions occurring in the built in reactor cell.
The Westrex 2B is a motional feedback cutter head, introduced in 1952 by the Western Electric Export Company. It followed hot on the heels of the Westrex 2A, dating from 1947, which was itself a lateral implementation of the principles first described by Wiebusch, Vieth and Yenzer in 1938, with a couple of relevant patents issued by 1939, for a vertical cutter head employing motional feedback.
The Fairchild line of disk recording lathes, first appearing in the early 1930’s, featured a General Electric hysteresis synchronous AC motor, running at high speed, with a worm and gear reduction to drive the platter. While this system in its various permutations in their different models was impressively well made and performed well for its time (see here for a more detailed description and pictures), a direct-drive system with a floor mounted motor is clearly the way to go if the highest level of performance is to be attained.
Our popular Agnew Analog Reference Instrument Type 1501 Stylus shank adapter was intended to make it possible to use the Neumann-style taper shank stylus (Transco 320, Adamant NSH-2, etc) with vintage mono heads such as the Presto 1-C and 1-D, which need a long shank stylus.
Up to now, customers would just install the adapter and leave it there, only occasionally replacing the stylus. One customer, however, wanted to be able to leave the stylii aligned in the adapter, and change them out without needing to realign.
In the darkest corner of the catacombs under the lab, illuminated only by glowing directly-heated triode filaments, top secret experimental research is being conducted…
Presto 1-D and 1-C cutter heads are frequently encountered on our lab bench for repair and restoration. Some are just regular repairs to original spec, others are rewound to a different impedance, but some undergo more comprehensive and exciting modifications!
We have previously examined modifications where a feedback system was added to a Neumann MS-52H and an Audax R-56 cutter head. This time, we shall discuss adding feedback to a Presto 1-D, which arrived with damaged coils.
This Audax cutter head arrived with a fried coil and a completely crusted armature. The damping material had not aged well.
A complete disassembly, cleanup and reassembly would be required, with the renewal of the damping material and drive coil. This was yet another perfect candidate for our feedback modification.
Neumann cutter heads have a rib along the back, for mounting. Presto lathes, on the other hand, together with the vast majority of non-Neumann vintage lathes (Rek-O-Kut, Fairchild, etc.), have a mount with two slots, for cutter heads with two threaded holes on the back (Audax, Presto, Fairchild, RCA, etc).
Sabine Agnew was recently interviewed for "Women in Vinyl", a publication featuring women professionally involved in vinyl record manufacturing and other fields related to the vinyl industry.
Have you ever noticed the total absence of audio equipment from the luxury houses presented in glossy architecture and interior design magazines? It makes the inhabitants of such property come across as rather uncultured.
In fact, not only is an audiophile grade sound system a minimum requirement for the home of anyone affluent enough to hire an interior designer, but it is important to choose a designer who can appreciate the aura of sophistication and intellect projected by a beautifully restored vintage disk recording lathe, set in a handcrafted custom cabinet, in a conspicuous corner of the living room!
One hundred years ago, on October 19, 1919, RCA was founded. Among countless other things, they made some amazing ribbon microphones, several disk recording lathes, a few different cutter heads and some of the best sounding vacuum tubes, many of which are still in regular use to this day.
We recently had the pleasure of having Symatic over, from Bristol, UK, for a week of training on how to cut (and how not to cut) records.
Symatic runs Cut & Paste Records, a record label attracting some serious attention among skratchers, with high quality releases of skipless skratch samples, lock-groove tones, beats, and relevant music.
All Hardinge HLV and HLV-H variants feature a continuously variable speed drive to the spindle. It starts with a 3-phase, two speed squirrel cage induction motor, rated at 500 rpm and 1500 rpm nominal (less in practice, due to slip) at 50 Hz. This would be 600 rpm and 1800 rpm at 60 Hz.
Finding a Hardinge HLV can be challenging enough, especially if, like us, you happen to be located in Europe. At 1400 lbs, shipping and handling gets complicated. In a previous post, we described the joys of forklifting the beast onto a platform trolley (with suitable structural support added to the building), to get it to the workshop, though narrow corridors and doorways. Once there, it had to be lifted off the trolley and placed directly on the floor. With no chance of being able to drive the period-correct forklift truck into the shop, we had to get creative. A hydraulic engine hoist along with slings and tacks got the job done neatly. With the lathe on the floor and properly leveled, it was time to check it over, replacing, adjusting, lubricating and cleaning parts along the way!
While Naxatras are busy rocking hard as far as Australia right after a European tour, their third album won the "Best Audiophile Recording" Award in the "Analogue" category, both in its triple LP edition on vinyl and its double reel edition on 1/4" tape, at the Rocky Mountain International Hi-Fi Press Awards, in Denver, Colorado, on September 8.
Tasos of Epos Laboratory (a Grado retipping specialist) from the beautiful south of Greece is the lucky owner of this 1950's Rek-O-Kut disk recording system.
It consists of a Rek-O-Kut Model V 16" turntable, which he found in the USA (where else?) as a non-runner. The motor was in bad shape and refused to run at all. Even if it would run, it was expecting to be fed on a regular diet of 110 VAC/60 Hz!
The best finds always pop up in the summer, when everyone else is on holidays! Still, they are not always nearby or easy to deal with. When this 1954 Hardinge HLV precision toolroom lathe appeared on the horizon, it took all of 5 minutes to decide to go for it and one week of frantic international phone calls to organize everything. An engineer was sent to check it over, local transportation to an industrial machinery crating facility, international transportation, more local transportation and another week later it was finally in our yard!
The Type 6079 is our new low profile record clamp, for securely holding the blank disk in place on a disk recording lathe, during the cutting operation.
A customer recently imported a vintage Presto 75A disk recording lathe from the USA, with a view to cutting records in Europe.
He quickly discovered, like many people before him, that it was spinning a bit slower than it should, when operated from 50 Hz mains, via a simple step-down transformer. As with most vintage record cutting machines, the platter is powered by a synchronous AC motor, which "locks" to the line frequency.
Mr and Mrs Agnew are now officially husband and wife! What better occasion to preserve forever, on a long lasting format that can be enjoyed by future generations?
It would appear that 50 Hz conversions of vintage "made in USA" disk recording lathes are becoming rather fashionable! Last week we examined how we converted a Rek-O-Kut Model V by machining a new capstan and making a special transformer, Type 1760.
We have done 50 Hz conversions (and even some 60 Hz ones!) on many different lathes and turntables, using all of the possible methods of doing so: New rubber rollers, new capstans, new belt pulleys and even electronic frequency conversion (Agnew Analog Type 191 frequency converter) for professional disk mastering systems.
This week, we will have a look at the Presto 75A, a high quality machine, dating from the 1930's, which was even used by the BBC as a broadcasting turntable!
Depicted here, are two external rotor, polyphase, electronic commutation motors, fitted to custom mounting plates, ready to be installed in disk recording systems, to control the leadscrew.
These are very high precision motors, with features allowing accurate, closed-loop control of speed over a wide range, as well as positioning applications. A combination of hall sensor arrays and high resolution encoders makes them extremely versatile, compatible with a wide range of lathes.
With powder coated end-bells in Agnew-cream-white and our fancy engraved stainless steel product plates riveted on, with type designation and serial number stamped by hand as a seal of approval following our extensive testing and quality control procedures, our transformers now look as good as they are!
As with the vast majority of disk recording lathes of US manufacture, this 1956 Rek-O-Kut Model V was configured to spin at the correct speeds when powered by 50 Hz mains. One of our customers imported it from the USA and wanted to run it at 230 VAC/50 Hz European mains power. We have encountered this situation countless times by now. We recently also described how we converted a Presto MRC16 to 50 Hz operation by making new rubber rollers to different dimensions, while some years back, we developed the first version of Type 191, a stable electronic frequency converter for professional disk mastering lathes, which are often impractical or costly to convert by other means (Lyrec direct-drive motor on Neumann lathes, belt driven Scully lathes, gear-driven Fairchild systems, etc).
We are very excited to present our new product plates, featuring our new logo, engraved on stainless steel plates!
The new logo was designed by Sabine Agnew and the choice of stainless steel as a material for the plates acts as a further statement of our commitment to exceptional quality, to accompany our products throughout their extremely long service life with no deterioration.
This item is the latest addition to our collection of experimental transducer prototypes. What you see is a multi-layer miniature winding on a custom machined former, entirely made in-house at the Agnew Analog Research & Development Laboratory.
Over the past few years, we have restored a number of SME 3009 and 3012 tonearms, covering most of their variants made over the impressively long production life span of this model range.
This outstanding tonearm was first introduced in 1959, setting a standard for high performance tonearm design which is still hard to beat, 60 years later.
We have used our restored SME tonearms on a large number of reference reproduction systems, for our own use and for our customers, such as the Thorens TD160 project which was presented here last February. These systems are excellent for Quality Control in vinyl record manufacturing, to ensure that any defects are caught early.
They are of course also capable of offering an intensely enjoyable, accurate listening experience, coupled with an accurate cartridge.
Inspired by the toolposts used in metalworking lathes and improving upon the cutter head mounting system used by Neumann, the Type 6021 will accurately and rigidly hold any cutter head fitted with a suitable bar, including Neumann, Vinylium and FloKaSon heads, as well as any other head imaginable, through the use of our Series 1400 head mount adapter range.
A rather optimistic gentleman arrived with a Presto MRC-16 disk recording lathe, inquiring about the possibility of repairing the broken suspension and making a cutter head bracket from scratch. He then asked about the possibility of figuring out some way in which lead-in, lead-out, and track mark spirals could be cut on this machine, which was originally intended as a very basic machine, with no provision for spirals, not even a hand crank. Then came the really ambitious part: He would ideally like to be able to adjust the pitch and if possible, control the lathe through his computer!
One glance at the steampunk aesthetic of the manufacturer's name plate and the overall state of this primitive machine would have been enough to deter the average engineer, in fear that there might be something potentially radioactive hiding within...
Presto disk recording lathes are often still in active use nowadays, nearly 80 years after they originally left the factory in New York. Let us have a closer look at what keeps them spinning!
For some reason, the people involved with the manufacturing of vinyl records are rather stoic types. The rare occasion when they are in a talkative mood, they mostly talk about the manufacturing process and equipment. They are not often talking about what happens after the records have been manufactured, the actual reproduction of these records, for pleasure or for the most critical step of manufacturing: Quality control.
Modified Thorens TD160 with SME 3009 and Van den Hul MC Two cartridge, with a test record
What follows is the story of the restoration, modification, assembly, calibration and testing, of some components, which, if used properly, can result in a highly accurate phonograph disk reproduction system.
In 2015, J. I. Agnew started developing a high-end cutting amplifier for disk mastering systems, to be used with motional feedback stereophonic cutter heads. During this process, he investigated the design and implementation problems of such transducers in great detail. As usual, he documented his progress, which evolved into an engineering report, titled "An Investigation of Motional Feedback Disk Recording System Design", which was accepted for publication in the November 2018 issue of the Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, following the customary peer review process.
