Our coworker Henk says taking apart Wheels is a joy, because of the many technical surprises inside. But building Wheels and taking them apart again usually means something needs to be adjusted or modified. Adjustments are normal and integrated in the assembling process, but new modifications need to be implemented in the entire series.
All parts of each Wheel are registered during building, but building each Wheel differently makes automation impossible, let alone servicing. The back and forth process of assembling and demounting is tedious but necessary, and we believe almost behind us.
Wheel has become a huge operation. To stay close to Wheel’s concept, and to our design philosophy, we had to jump through hoops, move mountains and spend time. We might not be entirely on track (I know we missed our Q3 target) but we’re on top for sure!
Production tonearm assembly with a part of the drive construction, our unique flexinol lift and Audio Technica’s engine.
Arms of wood because it should
I remember we showed you our wooden linear tonearm two years ago. Until now we stayed silent about the arm because boy did we change it. Everything around it has been redesigned over and over, and the tonearm itself changed from wood to plastic, to carbon, to aluminium, and back to wood!
Wheel’s linear tonearm is precisely milled out of one piece of very dense even grained wood. This gives us total control over mass, stiffness and balance, and is a perfect match to the Audio Technica. We’re happy its design finally returned to the elegance and clarity it had in the beginning. We’re glad to offer you a glimpse.
We keep pushing hard and we’re almost there. Thank you for your support!
Peter and the Wheel team
First milling operations on the underside.