Three decades ago, I had a boss who insisted I drive a Mercedes-Benz as a company car. Tough gig, you might be thinking, but there was solid reasoning behind this extravagance: He wanted the people representing his company to look successful, so it was three-pointed star cars for all, at a time when a Mercedes was more exclusive than it is today.
I only worked at that company for a couple of years, but my passion for Mercedes never faded. In the decades since, I have owned more Swabian cars than I can count using fingers and toes. So, when a box shows up on my doorstep and the packing slip includes words like Benz, AMG, SLR, and Gullwing, I assume it’s a box full of car goodies.
This AMG, though, is not car related. The letters stand for Analog Manufaktur Germany, a tortured bilingual moniker that tells you a little about the company, which has no relationship to Mercedes or its AMG subsidiary, which soups up certain Mercedes models.
Founded in 2011 in Bavaria a few miles southeast of Nuremberg, this AMG makes turntables and tonearms. Since its founding, its product line has remained resolutely focused, with just a handful of models. The Giro MK II is their most affordable; the Viella and its beefed-up sibling, the Viella Forte, sit above it.1 The tonearm lineup is similarly simple, with 9" and 12" arms available standard (9W2 and 12J2) and as upgraded “Turbo” versions (9WT and 12JT). (Rounding out the tonearm lineup is the 9W1, a slightly longer 9" arm that’s compatible with Rega’s mounting geometry and isn’t normally paired with AMG’s own turntables.)
First launched in 2015—Herb Reichert reviewed it in his Gramophone Dreams column in 2017—Giro has now received its first major revision, with upgrades significant enough to make it worthy of MK II status. The most visible upgrade is a thicker, 40% heavier version of AMG’s POM (aka Delrin, aka polyoxymethylene) platter, which gives it
