Lublin, Poland, is about 130 miles from Lviv, Ukraine, a town that has been in the news lately. That’s about the same distance as Hershey, Pennsylvania, is from my desk in northern New Jersey, where I’m writing this. They are close. Russian missiles struck Lviv on March 18, 2022, and today Lviv is preparing for more intense bombardment.
J.Sikora manufactures turntables and tonearms in Lublin, Poland. Concentrating on something as frivolous as audio reviewing and not thinking about what’s happening in Ukraine is difficult enough. Lowering the stylus onto a record spinning on J.Sikora’s top-of-the-line Reference turntable, manufactured in the Allmet metal fabrication factory, which is so close to the mayhem, amplifies feelings of helplessness.
Those feelings are further intensified by having met and spent time at more than one Warsaw Audio Video Show with Mr. Janusz Sikora and his son Robert. (Robert is also a musician, in the band Crab Invasion, with his brother Jakub. I’m itching to hear their record.)
The Sikoras are the nicest people. In fact, so were most of the Poles I met at the show and around town. It doesn’t surprise me at all that so many Poles welcomed millions of displaced Ukrainians into their homes.
I was happy to welcome into mine the $47,000 J.Sikora Reference turntable, having heard the J.Sikora Initial Max turntable at the Capital Audiofest and, at a friend’s home, the company’s $21,500 Standard Max turntable.
I’ve done my research on Mr. Sikora. I learned that as a young man he was a rock guitarist. Later, he was a locksmith. He was also involved in tube-amplifier manufacturing. But metalwork is his main skillset, and once analog staged its comeback, he set his sights on making turntables.
The Reference is a superhigh-mass design, weighing 253lb. The dynamically and statically balanced platter alone weighs 40lb; it’s the same one used on the Standard Max. Fabricated from a combination of Delrin and
