It’s been a full year since we first offered the Well Tempered Labs Versalex turntable.

This highly innovative product represents the pinnacle of designer Bill Firebaugh’s quite radical rethinking of turntable engineering (Here is a link to my blog to fully explain the details) which is the top of a four model range comprising of the aforementioned plus the Amadeus GTA, Amadeus and the entry level Amadeus Simplex.

Now available for demonstration, we are pleased to announce the addition to our turntable line up of the entry level model, the Amadeus Simplex, which is well under half the retail price of the Versalex at just £1595 but manages to retain all the key design elements of that model in a simplified form hence the moniker, Simplex.

So we still have the zero-tolerance bearingless arm, variable arm damping and the narrow sand filled aluminium armtube: though 9 inches rather than 10.5, mounted through a whole golf ball rather than half of one. The same acrylic platter but down from 13 inches to a more regular 12.

Also retained is the triangular zero-tolerance bearing aperture and the same 0.004’ thread for the drive via the same DC motor.

This much smaller and therefore easier to accommodate deck features a black MDF instead of the costly Baltic-ply plinth found on the Versalex.

Sound wise, this deck retains that same character of impeccable timing and pitch stability with solid images within a wealth of detail; even when coupled with a more cost effective cartridge such as the one pictured here: the Dynavector 10X5 at £379.

At the combined price of £1974 this combo represents what can only be described as one of those true high-end bargains, which has been noted by many a reviewer.

P.S. At the end of last years blog I stated that I’d been using a well known Scottish made turntable for the previous 29 years and posed the question if I’d make it to 30. Well I did but not to 31!

So taken with the Versalex was I that I just had to have one. Now if that isn’t recommendation enough then I don’t know what is.

Simon