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Wally Wally Wally

Anyone else get the latest Wally tools? Likes or dislikes? Not asking for opinion on purchase of said items, only your experiences; both, good and bad.


I just went wild Wally Tool crazy and ordered everything. Long story short, I will be accumulating at least two more turntables in the next 6 months, and wanted to have another set of eyes to spot check my current methods of installing and measuring cartridges performance; ears, SME protractor, test records, Fozgometer, Schon Schablonne (German protractor), and glass protractor by Avid. 
It’s a means to an end as I want quick, verifiable, and repeatable measurements due to the amount of tonearm and cartridges swapping that will be occurring. It’s a means to an end which supports my listening studio.


I have, like many others, used my ears and standard measurement tools over many years and it’s pretty cut and dry. I figured what the heck, why not indulge in tools that support the hobby, and can be used to help others while also giving me some peace of mind.

audioquest4life
lewm
12,453 posts
 
So "Wally", unlike Houdini, has managed to reach across the River Styx and remains in business even though no longer among us. No RIP for him.
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,574 posts
 
@lewm  Exactly- has someone started making his products again??
benjie
326 posts
 
WAM Engineering is a newly formed company, a partnership between the late Wally Malewicz's son Andrzej, himself a mechanical engineer and Wally's former production assistant J.R. Boisclair.
benjie
326 posts
 
A few questions, how do you know that your tonearm geometry and mounting is spot on without the use of tools? How do you know the native stylus rake angle of your cartridge without the use of tools? Can't judge that by eye or ear. How do you know how much anti-skate your tonearm is producing when set to zero? Internal wiring and tonearm bearings are the culprit. They all produce a small amount and every tonearm is different, even from the same manufacturer. Can't use a VTF gauge for that. I think some of the weak link is the lack of proper tools and making too many assumptions on what you think is correct without verification.
lewm
12,453 posts
 
I don't think anyone disagrees with your sentiments, Benjie.  A few exceptions: You might not need to know the effect of bearing friction and wiring on AS, because when you determine a satisfactory amount of added AS, you have automatically accounted for the baseline represented by those inherent factors.  I say " satisfactory", because we know there is no single value of AS that is correct at every point on the surface of the LP.  As for SRA, only a very few diehards make the Herculean effort to see it, let alone measure it.  And when measured, it seems from other posts I have read that virtually no two observers will have the same opinion on the angle visualized, given the complexity of all but the most simple stylus shapes. (See posts and discussions on Vinyl Asylum, for example.). The weakest link in setting up a cartridge, even with proper tools, whatever those are, is human error, IMO.
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