Turntable setup is a diagnostic exercise

ANALOG CORNER

- MICHAEL FREMER

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.