Cartridges

We build advanced technology into Wheel and Wheel 2 to make your life easier, not to complicate things. You just put on a record, play it and enjoy the music.

We developed nearly all technology ourselves. The only exception is the cartridge. A cartridge is, at its basic level, an electromechanical transducer. It turns the mechanical movement of the needle (stylus) in the record groove into an electrical signal. We are very fond of the Audio Technica's AT95E cartridge, the one we use in our Wheels. We not only chose it for its sonic performance, but also for its build quality.

The tonearm in Wheel and Wheel 2 is designed around the AT95E. 
For a perfect fit and optimal weight, we removed all excess plastic from both the cartridge and the stylus. Apart from that, the cartridges are unmodified. Each spare stylus comes with a special tool to easily replace it.

After two years into the Wheel project, Audio Technica introduced a successor to the AT95E, the AT-VM95 series. This cartridge is a step up from the AT95E. It also comes with a choice of styli in five different shapes: Conical, Elliptical, Microlinear, Shibata, and Special Line Contact. 
Each stylus has its own strength and purpose. We'll tell you more about this soon.

Our trusted AT95E sounds just as fine as it always did, so we continue to build it into the standard Wheel 2. But we will also offer the AT-VM95 series as a purists choice. From September 1st, the shop will be updated with all the options.

Stylus pressure
The tonearm of Wheel 2 is essentially a cnc controlled device. Unlike other linear arms, its X and Z position is continually monitored and adjusted with the utmost precision. This poses much less strain on the stylus and cantilever, and your record.
If you want to explore sonic horizons, we designed a super simple way to manually set the stylus pressure. Not by balancing weights, or by fiddling with a screwdriver, but from the display.