Whilst audio designers and audio consumers seem to be more divided and conflicted than ever before when it comes to questions of how an audio system should work, or even what it should do, in no field is that material and technological divide quite as apparent as it is with loudspeakers. Sure, when it comes to front-end components you have advocates for high-resolution file replay squaring off against analog aficionados, but in many cases and systems these two technologies will coexist, alongside an optical-disc player too. Likewise, when it comes to amplification, mixing tubes and solid state, both within products and within systems, is a familiar approach. But the vast majority of systems only have room for a single set of speakers, so you pays your money and you takes your choice.

But which choice? It’s not just a case of electrostatic or dynamic, horn or active, big or small, two boxes or four or more. In each and every category (or so it seems) there are those who advocate modern materials and technologies and those who remain loyal to more traditional methods. So, for that lucky somebody looking to spend somewhere between $50,000 and $80,000 on a pair of speakers, the short list might well contain one or more products from Wilson Audio, a company that has spent forty years refining its original recipe through incremental evolution of its time-domain theory, drivers and cabinet materials. Yet, in all probability, that list would also contain a Magico or YG Acoustics model, loudspeakers that employ massive, machined metal cabinets and eschew traditional driver materials in favor of high-tech alternatives. Come down in price and you see the same dichotomy, with the likes of Harbeth and Spendor facing off against B&W. Try an alternative technology like electrostatics and here again you have Quad’s traditional construction in competition with MartinLogan’s more modernist, often hybrid approach.

As often as not, customers’ own systems, experience and attitudes will lean them one way or the other, but if just for a moment we assume that in each case these opposing approaches offers its own particular strengths (and weaknesses), wouldn’t a materials and technology halfway house offer the best of both worlds? It’s an enticing proposition and not without some supporting evidence. The world really isn’t that simple, but both Vandersteen and Avalon have ploughed resolutely individual developmental furrows, combining traditional cabinet materials with more modern driver technologies, to considerable critical acclaim. That neither dominates the market has more to do with their sales strategies and circumstance than it does with the absolute quality of their products.

Stenheim is a relatively late entrant to the high-end speaker field. It was founded in 2010 by a collective of mainly ex-Goldmund engineers, and its products have inherited an unmistakable aesthetic and, to a lesser extent, sonic DNA, although it was a significantly evolved character that was to emerge in the shape of the debut model, the compact, two-way Alumine Two. It’s a developmental divergence that has continued and, if anything, accelerated with the emergence of each subsequent product. The latest Stenheim speakers, developed under the auspices of new owner Jean-Pascal Panchard, definitely have their own, unambiguous identity, both visually and musically.

I’ve been seriously looking forward to the arrival of the Alumine Five. Previous experience with the brand has included impressive exposure to the various versions of the enormous and enormously impressive Ultime Reference models, as well as a brief but highly rewarding flirtation with the stand-mounted Alumine Two in my own system. The possibility of combining the sense of musical articulation, enthusiasm and communication I experienced from the Alumine Two, with more than a hint of the clarity, scale and authority so effortlessly delivered by the Reference models, all in a package that, if not exactly affordable, at least isn’t completely out of the question, makes the Alumine Five a distinctly interesting proposition.

Yet, confronted with the Alumine Five in the flesh, there’s little to hint at the extraordinary promise lurking within. Resolutely rectangular in true Stenheim style, the Five’s aluminum cabinet, with its plate-to-plate construction, stands just 48" tall, 15" deep and presents a broad 11" face to the world, dimensions based on golden-ratio numbers. The front baffle is split by a physical break between the upper midrange-treble enclosure and the lower bass cabinet, independently ported by the laminated full-width slots above and below, a physical separation that is mirrored by the contrasting inlaid strips that help visually break up the one-piece side panels. The regular lines, smooth surfaces, flawless matte finish and lack of visible fixings could easily result in a bland, almost featureless appearance. But those trim strips and the offset midrange and treble drivers do just enough to give the Five a subtle hint of individual style without resorting to the sort of gauche and ostentatious flourishes that so often pass as design.

The result is a refreshingly clean, classical appearance that will blend seamlessly with a range of different decors. Despite the lack of grilles (although they are available as an option, does anybody really spend this kind of money on a speaker and then compromise the performance by fitting covers?), the beautifully profiled baffle and absence of visible fixings makes for a genuinely neat, finished appearance that matches the superb surface finish on the cabinet. The end result just looks right, in a way that makes you wonder why you’d want grilles anyway.

The first hint of its potent sonic capabilities comes when you try to pick it up. Each comparatively compact cabinet tips the scales at 220 pounds. That’s a grunt-inducing, two-man lift. Now, take a look at the figures for bandwidth and sensitivity, and an in-room response that digs down as far as 28Hz combined with 94dB efficiency should raise your eyebrows, especially given the compact cabinet dimensions. Which brings us to the first experiential disconnect: boxes this size shouldn’t produce this much bass or do it so easily. Nor should they weigh so much -- although therein lies the clue to this particular conundrum. When it comes to bass extension, it’s not the external dimensions of the box that matter, but its internal volume. Just like the Crystal Cable Minissimo, a thin-wall cabinet makes for a much larger internal volume than the external dimensions might suggest -- especially if we apply the expectations of more conventional wood-based construction. Throw in the sheer weight of the aluminum panels and the combination of mass and physical dimensions would subconsciously suggest massively thick walls -- and a correspondingly limited internal volume. Instead, what we have here is a deceptively large volume, which, combined with the inertia of the heavy cabinet and the mechanical stability provided by the material, makes for an effective mechanical reference for driver movement, meaning that more of the energy your amplifier sticks into the speaker comes out as sound and (at least in theory) it will be more precisely rendered.

So far, not very much that’s new. It’s not like Stenheim (or Magico, or YG Acoustics) has exclusivity when it comes to aluminum cabinets. But what does make Stenheim different is the unique material they use in damping their cabinet panels. Of course, the separate enclosures and the internal baffles they demand make for an inherently heavily braced structure, but look inside a dismantled Alumine Five and you’ll find strategically placed pads stuck to the cabinet walls. These three-layer, self-adhesive pads combine a heavy damping layer (adjacent to the cabinet wall itself) with added foam and impervious layers, allowing the low-volume pads to influence both the mechanical behavior of the cabinet itself and the enclosed volume. It’s an interesting solution because it manages to overcome the weakness so often audible in simple, braced aluminum cabinets (the all-too-recognizable resonant signature of the material itself) while maximizing the benefits (large volume and rigidity) by obviating the need to stuff the internal space full of wadding or long-haired wool. In fact, if the Stenheims were stood behind a sonically transparent curtain, you’d be hard-pressed to recognize the music as emanating from an aluminum cabinet at all. The absence of the bleached, grainy or lean colorations, the lack of sterile, mechanistic reproduction, is one big half of the Stenheim story, living, breathing proof that it’s not what you use but how you use it that counts.

The other half is down to the drive units, and after the cabinets, those come as quite a surprise, both the lineup and the chosen materials. In stark contrast to the use of the latest, precision CNC techniques, complex damping pads and finishing options, the Alumine Five's drivers are as traditional as they come, with a coated silk-dome tweeter and pulp or laminated paper midrange and bass drivers. The cone drivers use textile double-roll surrounds and massive magnets more normally found in pro-audio applications, and while Stenheim doesn’t build its own drivers, the company works closely with its chosen supplier (PHL, definitely not one of the usual suspects) to specify the electrical parameters, mechanical characteristics and precise details of the surface coating.

The use of such lightweight cone materials and large motors aids the system efficiency, while a hybrid second-order/Linkwitz-Riley crossover, the result of extended listening and evolution, ensures phase coherence and excellent out-of-band attenuation and makes for easy non-reactive load characteristics, despite the three-way topology. The other aspect of the driver lineup that might be considered slightly unusual is the use of a large-diameter (6 1/2") midrange unit -- although less so since Vandersteen’s patent on the approach lapsed some years ago, resulting in a rash of companies suddenly exploring the possibilities of the topology.

Perhaps more important, in the case of the Alumine Five, it means that you are getting the tweeter and midrange drivers from the Ultime Reference series speakers, teamed here with a pair of 10" woofers but without the benefit of a super tweeter. Even so, Stenheim quotes bandwidth out to 35kHz, which should suffice for most purposes. The review speakers arrived with the optional second set of terminals installed, allowing for biwiring or, more significantly, biamping, an upgrade opportunity that makes this an option you should take. If, in the meantime, you are single-wiring the speakers, make sure you factor in a set of jumpers that match your speaker cables: the Alumine Five's overall sense of musical coherence makes the benefits especially obvious. Likewise, good wiring practice is essential, both in terms of cable dressing and diagonal connection (red to midrange/treble, black to bass, with jumpers arranged accordingly).

Aside from the speaker's substantial weight, the parallel sides and flat surfaces of the four-square cabinet make setting up the Fives an absolute joy. Precise, repeatable, angular adjustments are easily achieved, while changes in attitude are just as straightforward, helped by the beautifully profiled stainless-steel spiked feet and deeply cupped footers. Both the cones and their locking rings have nice, large ports to take the supplied pry bars, but it’s worth greasing the threads before installation. One other thing to watch out for: the spikes are seriously (refreshingly) sharp -- sharp enough to penetrate a thick rug and score the floor below, so be careful where you stand the speakers once the feet are installed. Final positioning disposed the speakers on a broad front with minimal toe-in. When it came to dialing in their considerable musical energy, the most critical factor proved to be height off the ground, with tiny adjustments of the spikes making profound differences to the weight and pace of the presentation. Likewise, equal weighting of the four spikes was crucial to a proper sense of grounded weight and dynamic authority.

With those details attended to, the speakers were ready to rock. Time then for some discussion of matching amps. Obviously, with a relatively benign load coupled to a 94dB sensitivity, the speakers accommodate a considerable range of possible amps, but that doesn’t mean anything goes. The majority of the listening was carried out using three different setups: the Mark Levinson No.585 integrated amp; the Tom Evans Groove, Vibe, Linear B combination; and the Connoisseur preamp and Berning Quadrature Z amps. It’s an illuminating list, with two hybrids and a high-powered solid-state option: no pure tube design (although there’s no particular reason why not), but far more significantly, no low-powered or single-ended design. The thing to note is that all of the amps I used offer upwards of 80Wpc (the Bernings and Levinson each delivering 200+ watts). I did try the Jadis JA-30s -- whose 25 watts of class-A power look like the perfect match on paper -- and the results were enjoyable enough, but there was no escaping the fact that for all their warmth and intimacy, the Jadis amps lacked the bandwidth, sense of palpable acoustic space, dynamic impact, weight and musical authority that came with increased power. My experience is unequivocal: the Alumine Fives love power. It’s a genuinely wide-bandwidth performer that thrives on control and drive at the frequency extremes. That 94dB efficiency is more about delivering dynamic range and getting the most out of your driving amp than allowing you to use some flea-powered triode. Of course, you can go that route, but if you do you’ll be selling both the amp and the speaker short. The one possible exception I’d love to try would be the Engström Lars -- but then that particular push-pull 300B seems to be the exception to quite a few rules. With it’s imminent return in the offing, the chance to pair it with the Alumine Fives might still come, and if it does I’ll report accordingly.

The Alumine Fives were positioned slightly wider than the norm in my new second listening room (5.5 by 8.5 meters, details to follow) with minimal toe-in and around 30" between their back panels and the wall behind -- meaning that they value space but they’re not too greedy. Interestingly, I found that I could push them back with less degradation than expected, but there was no doubting where they stood most comfortably -- or that the precise position was altered dependent on the driving amp. You can take few liberties with these speakers if you want to hear them at their considerable best.

Put together, the combination of ample power, wide bandwidth and system sensitivity and you’d expect that rarest of attributes: a combination of weight and scale, presence and immediacy. The Alumine Fives don’t disappoint. In many ways their fundamental musical character can be summed up with the single track, "These Days," Don Henley’s contribution to the Jackson Browne tribute album Looking Into You [Music Road Records MRR CD 018]. From the solid immediacy of the solo guitar and exposed vocal opening, through the dynamic steps to full-band chorus, brass break and gentle decline, the song lives and breathes, growing effortlessly in scale and density, natural in its pace, phrasing and tonality. Henley’s vocal is poignant, natural, communicative and affecting -- just like Don Henley’s vocals should be -- just like they were when the Eagles sold all those albums. If you ever wondered where that success grew from, hear this track on these speakers and you have your answer. It’s not just the quality of the singing but the identity of the singer that’s unmistakable. Likewise, the upright bass, the trumpet, harmonium and dulcimer were each just as naturally rendered, without question or possible confusion with their near relatives to muddle their musical input. Instead, there was no missing the sense of purpose and direction in the arrangement and production, the way the instruments supported the vocal and the voice delivered the lyric. The song is the point and the point was well made.

That ability to deliver both pace and body might sound simple, but in practice it’s anything but. Mastering it allows the Stenheims to fasten on and deliver the musical core in a performance through a combination of presence and clarity. It’s what these speakers do, it’s what makes them special, and it has a fundamental effect on the way they present other familiar recordings. You might marvel at the musical results, but, time and again the qualities underpinning them came down to those same two attributes -- pace and presence.

Take the Barbirolli/Du Pré concert recording of the Elgar Cello Concerto [Testament SBT 1388]. The sense of body, presence, tonal identity and color that the Fives brought to the party played directly into Du Pré’s richly emotive performance, all body and energy, while Barbirolli’s deft and beautifully balanced orchestral support was equally well served, the control of level and tempo clearly apparent. But what really stood out, listening to this vividly natural performance, was just that -- the sense of performance. There was a musical and spatial coherence that bound the musicians together, creating a single whole. There was a clearly defined front to the stage, with instruments neither stepping nor bleeding forward, a sense of the orchestra being both here (as in present) and there (as in over there). Far from creating a sense of musical distance or detachment -- unlikely, given the sheer presence and immediacy of both the performance and the speakers reproducing it -- it added to the atmosphere of the live event, enhancing the feeling of actually being in the audience.

The Stenheim's easy clarity and unforced instrumental and musical separation meant that it reveled in vinyl sources, none more so than the astonishing speed and precision of the DS Audio DS-W1 mounted in the AMG Giro/9W2, a record player of deceptive simplicity that constantly causes me to reappraise my expectations upwards. The ability of this system to bring new interest to the most hackneyed of recordings was a breath of musical fresh air. You don’t get much more hackneyed than Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusic (K.525, the Munchinger/Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra recording [Decca, SXL 2270]), but from the opening bars, the incisive bowing, precise direction and perfect sense of musical structure and symmetry were fresh, vibrant and spellbinding. As familiar as it was, the catchy simplicity of the melodies, the grace and deceptive complexity of the counterpoint and part playing, entertained just as effortlessly as they illuminated Mozart’s genius. It’s a performance that’s built on the vitality in the playing, but also the clarity, separation, but above all, the natural sense of proportion emanating from the Alumine Fives. So when the basses responded to and echoed a rising phrase from the violins, there was no sense of lag or slowing, dead weight or low-frequency inertia, just a joyous vivacity and attack in the bowing, a perfect sense of pace and pitch, shape and finesse to the phrase. It was a remarkable demonstration of the Fives’ ability to respond with pace and energy irrespective of frequency.

Likewise, I heard a similar but different sense of scale and proportion to the playing in the 1965 Martha Argerich recording of the Chopin Piano Sonata No.3 in B Minor (Op.58 [Warner Classics 825646 372867]). In this case, it was the clarity in the lines and phrasing, the balance between left and right hands that illuminated the piece, a sense of musical shape and purpose built on the system’s ability to be both loud and quiet, delicate and powerful simultaneously, preserving the attack, poise, weight and placement of even the quietest notes alongside the loudest and most suddenly explosive. Even the rumbling of a repetitive bass arpeggio couldn’t disturb the crystalline clarity and astonishing delicacy of the upper registers, or the way that each note was spaced and placed with musical purpose.

So far I’ve been illustrating my points with smallish works, even the Elgar using a cut-down and carefully managed orchestra. But if it's on smaller-scale works that you first or most easily identify the underlying elements in the Stenheim's performance, they are qualities that by their very nature, scale with the music in an uncannily natural way. Try on the creative chaos that is Gershwin’s An American In Paris (the Chesky repressed LP of the Fiedler, Wild, Boston Pops recording [Chesky RC8] and, along with the Sibelius 2nd from the same series, still the best things that Chesky has done) and you’ll see what I mean. The Stenheim speakers thrived on the scattergun orchestration, quixotic shifts in rhythm and rudest of instrumental interjections, establishing a basis of temporal calm and organizational logic that allowed the orchestral playing full rein. It was this ability to start within, almost behind, the performance and grow out with it that made these speakers so impressive and so musically versatile. Big or small, delicate or bombastic, the Fives had the speed and ability to respond.

The emphatic opening to the Kleiber/Wiener Phiharmoniker Beethoven 7th Symphony (SACD [Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft 471 6302]) is a beautiful example of the Alumine Five's ability to project the most delicate textures alongside the most monumental orchestral climaxes, the gently burgeoning murmurings of the strings repeatedly swelling into the massive opening crescendo, the overwhelming sense of controlled vigor and energy in the playing as Kleiber marshals his musical forces. The progression and structure were as clear as the musical impact was impressive. Letting Sir John off the leash, his Sibelius 2nd (Barbirolli/RPO [Testament SBT 1418]) was an object lesson in color and continuity, from the pulsing brass tutti in the final movement to the conductor’s mastery of pace and flow. As the music ebbed and flowed, building higher and ever higher, it depended on its own ever-increasing momentum to maintain the anticipation, a momentum that could be shattered by the slightest hesitation in the playing or the reproduction. Barbirolli’s commanding presence controls the orchestra, and the Five matched his dynamic demands with an alacrity and almost physical enthusiasm that suggested there really was no upper limit. The result was a monumental musical event, almost shattering in its power and release -- all the more remarkable for the comparatively compact speakers producing it. The Fives did have their limits -- but they were awfully adept at hiding them, meaning that dynamic shifts, whether sudden or more measured, arrived with their full musical impact, contrast and color vividly complete.

But it was discs like these and the Argerich that highlighted what was not so much a weakness in the Stenheim Five’s performance as a question of style, a natural extension of musical attributes. Listening with these speakers, I found the results to be especially critical of level. Too quiet and the sense of presence, power and color collapsed; advance the volume control and the performance burst into life. With some speakers, you walk a tight rope: too quiet and they sound dull; even slightly too loud and they’re all shout and glare. As I’ve already suggested, the Fives didn’t suffer from shutting down or screeching at high levels, but they did seem to have a dynamic threshold they needed to cross in order to really deliver. It was on operational demand that made the 0.1dB steps on the Mark Levinson No.585’s volume control both audible and welcome, the relatively course steps on the Connoisseur’s stepped attenuator less so.

Also less than welcome on occasion was the speaker's incisive ability to preserve and reveal musical proportion and continuity, a capability adept at unraveling the joins in clumsily executed or synthetic stereo staging. Vocal booths and pan-potting, reverb used to cover over the cracks, or cut-and-paste recordings were not so much ruthlessly as matter-of-factly laid bare. Whether it was the separate vocal acoustic, dropped into the center of the Special AKA on "Free Nelson Mandela" or the "colored girls’" vocal advance on "Walk on the Wild Side," the studio artifice was clear; the saving grace was that in all but the crudest cases it was not distracting. Instead, rather like the natural "here but there" perspective on the Du Pré, it constituted another layer of information, another level of intimacy. Sadly, the same can’t be said of the hard separation exhibited by albums like Art Pepper’s Smack Up [Contemporary Records S-7602], but then a credible stereo presentation has never been part of their appeal.

Play a truly coherent acoustic recording via the Tom Evans electronics and the Stenheims, and the natural perspective will conjure up the performers. The straight-to-two-track recording of Janis Ian’s "Some People’s Lives" (Breaking Silence LP [Analogue Productions APP027]) generated an almost ghostly presence, not just through physical location and dimensionality, but because of the natural pace that allowed the slow tempo, rhythmic prods and hesitations to accent the playing and reinforce the phrasing. Likewise, the Argenta/Yepes Concierto De Aranjuez [Columbia SCLL 14000] threw an expansive acoustic space, around and beyond the soloist, with a natural sense of orchestral placement and distance, power and presence. This wasn’t the sort of spot lit, ultra focus and transparency that come from many high-definition, resolution über alles rigs. Instead, it was a combination of virtues: the transparency and ultra low noise floor of the electronics working with the spatial location, presence, body, scale, proportion, dynamic discrimination and natural perspective of the speakers to create credible energy sources (and relationships) within the soundfield. At heart, that’s what these speakers did: they generated musical energy, they did it while preserving its natural structure and patterns, and within the whole, they kept the individual sources separate. That's what all speakers should do, but a goal that few achieve. The disruption might come from poorly designed cabinets, badly integrated drivers or intrusive crossovers; it might come from a combination of all three, but any one is capable of shattering the fragile musical illusion on its own. That the Stenheim Fives avoided those pitfalls underlined both the balancing act that is speaker design as a whole and the balanced nature of this particular design.

It’s easy (and more than a little tempting) to be seriously reductionist when it comes to audio design, sonic cause and musical effect, to draw dead-straight lines from feature A to musical attribute B. It would be, for instance, easy to look at Stenheim’s unique approach to aluminum cabinetry and give it the credit for the speakers’ lack of coloration and confusing clutter. I’m sure that plays its part, but I’m equally sure that it’s a long way from being the whole story. Too many products hang their hats on a single technology or approach, but few, if any, of them set the benchmarks or enjoy enduring success. You could look at Wilson Audio solely in terms of the time-domain adjustments they build into their speakers, but to do so is to ignore the huge investment of time and effort that has gone into evolving their cabinet design and materials or their crossover engineering and execution. In many ways, the Stenheims really do offer that middle path, combining the clean, technical excellence and clarity of purpose that so often typify modern, high-tech speaker designs, with the body, color and dynamic expression that come from the best of the more traditional approaches. But that is in itself an oversimplification, both of the market and Stenheim’s achievement. The Alumine Five really does deliver on its promise, taking the musically communicative and expressive qualities of the Two and adding scale, range and authority to the mix. Okay -- not as much scale or authority as the Ultime Reference models, nor as explicit or palpable an acoustic as the flagships throw, but then all of that really does come at a price.

What the Alumine Five represents is a potent blend of weight, dynamic impact, tonal and rhythmic subtlety, in a beautifully executed and integrated package. For listeners who value the sense and feeling of sharing space with real, breathing musicians, that’s an awful lot of performance from an apparently simple-looking box, a box that’s easy to work with and easy to match. If I were looking at speakers in this price range, the Alumine Five would absolutely demand my attention.

But there’s also another side to this product and this review -- the general as opposed to the particular. For me, in my role as audio commentator, as impressive as these speakers are sonically and as accomplished as they are musically, the most impressive thing about them is that a product from a company that is so young can compete head on with some of the best, most capable and most refined designs on the market. It suggests both a deep understanding of the chosen approach and a long and rewarding working life -- both also things of serious importance to potential purchasers. With so many companies loudly proclaiming their place at high-end’s loudspeaker top table, Stenheim has quietly but convincingly leapfrogged the horde of noisier, flashier alternatives to establish themselves as serious contenders -- a new face amongst a very select group.

Price: $60,000 per pair.
Warranty: Five years parts and labor.

Stenheim-CH
Des Georges 6
1963 Vetroz
Switzerland
www.stenheim.com

Audioarts
210 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
(212) 260-2939
www.audioarts.co

Associated Equipment

Analog: AMG Giro turntable with 9W2 tonearm; Fuuga, Kuzma CAR-50, Lyra Etna and Dorian cartridges; DS Audio DS-W1 cartridge with matching equalizer; Tom Evans Audio Design The Groove phono stage.

Digital: Neodio Origine S2 CD player, CEC TL-5 CD transport, Wadax Pre 1 Ultimate DAC.

Preamplifiers: Connoisseur 4.2 LE, Tom Evans Audio Design The Vibe.

Power amplifiers: Berning Quadrature Z, Jadis JA-30 and Tom Evans Audio Design Linear B monoblocks.

Integrated amplifier: Mark Levinson No.585.

Cables: Complete looms of Nordost Valhalla 2 or Crystal Cable Absolute Dream from AC socket to speaker terminals. Power distribution was via Quantum Qb8s or Crystal Cable Power Strip Diamonds, with a mix of Quantum Qx2 and Qx4 power purifiers and Qv2 AC harmonizers. CAD Ground Control and Nordost Qkore grounding systems.

Supports: Raidho equipment racks used with Nordost SortKone or HRS Nimbus equipment couplers and damping plates. Cables are elevated on HECC Panda Feet.

Acoustic treatments: As well as the broadband absorption placed behind the listening seat, I employ a combination of RPG Skyline and RoomTunes acoustic devices.

Accessories: Essential accessories include the SmarTractor protractor, a USB microscope (so I can see what I’m doing, not for attempting to measure stylus rake angle) and Aesthetix cartridge demagnetizer, a precision spirit level and laser, a really long tape measure and plenty of low-tack masking tape. I also make extensive use of the Furutech anti-static and demagnetizing devices and the Kuzma ultrasonic record-cleaning machine. The Dr. Feikert PlatterSpeed app has to be the best-ever case of digital aiding analog.

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