Wheel 2
We are delighted and encouraged by the very positive reception of the first series of
Wheel 2's we delivered. We're proud Wheel 2 has reached the maturity we aimed for, and it's a huge relief we can finally ship Wheel 2's as planned and in the right order.
I'd like to give you a peek into the responses from the earliest Wheel 2 users.
After endless testing and refining, Wheel 2 was already finished and mature, and we proudly would have shipped this version. But at the same time, why not iron out the very final wrinkles while we can, so we did.
- One of the very first Wheel 2's we shipped arrived damaged. Because of what happened with the original Wheel, that was an unpleasant déjà vu. The damage was caused by one of the tonearm carriage mounts. We redesigned the mount, 3d printed a new series of them, and retrofitted all Wheel 2's in house before resuming shipment.
- One user found a glitch that disabled the repeat function on a few records and kept the stylus in the run-out groove until timeout. We fixed that in software.
- We've further improved track scanning of some white or very light coloured opaque records. These exotic records can be played normally, but the tracks weren't properly presented on the display. We tuned the track scanning thresholds to improve that.
- Some found it difficult to lift Wheel 2 out of its box. Our new no-risk box is made out of double layered corrugated board and filled with flight case foam, and it now also has comfortable finger grips to get your Wheel out.
Stand
Wheel 2's stand has been the subject of discussion. We developed a beautiful wooden dock stand for Wheel 2. It's a solid stand that gives Wheel 2 a sturdy base. Because this stand is time consuming to make, and blocks of matching quality wood aren't cheap, we couldn't bundle it with Wheel 2 for free. It would also disrupt our sacred September 1st target.
So we developed a smart two legged stand, made of the same quality materials as the stand of the original Wheel. In contrast to the wooden dock stand, it gives Wheel 2 a 'floating' effect. It is bundled with each Wheel 2. The wooden dock stand will be available as an accessory later.
Wheel 2's smart two legged stand. The parts of this stand are bundled with each Wheel 2. You can easily mount it yourself.
September 1!
We're delivering! In fact, low volume Wheel 2 deliveries have been going for a while. We are gradually scaling production to achieve our goal of 10 Wheel 2's per day in November. Because of how we assemble Wheel 2's, and the way it now withstands all but the roughest shipping and handling, we find ourselves in a whole new ballpark. Wheel 2 is our best answer to backlogs, and the best warranty for the future of the Wheel project.
The original Wheel
You know what it took us to develop the original Wheel. It's a wonderful machine in its own right, but it's development history has made it very complex, and shipping has proved to be very difficult. We had to decide to postpone shipping of original Wheels because of this. For now, original Wheels can only be picked up in or shop by appointment, or by personal delivery.
Survey
Some of you might have missed our survey email because of summer holidays. If you haven't responded please do so. Check your email spam box too or get in touch with us for a new email.
Thank you!
Peter and the Wheel team