Turntable setup is a diagnostic exercise
As I watched WAM Engineering’s J.R. Boisclair give an advanced turntable setup seminar at last November’s Capitol Audiofest, a light went off.
I’m being figurative, but the lights did—literally—go off, and then on again, as I flipped the switch for Boisclair’s presentation (see the photo below), which featured both screen time and an in-person lecture.
Boisclair’s presentation did not include setting up an actual, physical turntable. Rather, using slides and 1000:1 scale 3D-printed groove and stylus models, he dug into the advanced concepts involved in setting up a turntable and why those concepts matter.
After the presentation, a few people asked me if I was comfortable playing “second fiddle” when I’m usually up there myself doing the talking. I told them I’m perfectly happy flipping light switches and learning from the successor to the abundant Wally Malewicz knowledge base. After all, most of what I know about the subject came directly from Wally, a mechanical engineer, who, while not infallible, was most often correct.
Boisclair is not a mechanical engineer, but he was Wally’s longtime friend and assistant. Today, he is assisted by Wally’s son Andrzej, who, like Wally, is a mechanical engineer. He is vice-president of R&D at Medtronic, a giant healthcare tech company.
The light that went off for me during the presentation was the realization that correctly setting up a turntable is as much an exercise in diagnostics as it is in getting the cartridge precisely aligned in the tonearm.
I usually try to avoid setting up turntables for other people, but Boisclair’s mostly theoretical presentation had me flashing back to some setup experiences I’ve had, beginning with my +1 date to Jack White’s pressing plant grand opening in Detroit’s Cass Corridor back in February 2017.
Just to be clear,, and this reader won, so he was my date. He had to pay his own way, but he was thrilled to win, and the evening was as much fun as we’d hoped it would be and included having a photo taken with Jack White.
