Ars Machinae [ars_mā-ki-nai] comes from Latin and means “the art of creating a machine.” Ars Machinae represents the mechanical and industrial vision of an accomplished Engineer, Ralf Woelfel, and designer, Alexandra Krug. Each with a love of music and a shared passion for creating a technical and visual work of art, the Ars Machinae M1 turntable system. The M1 includes numerous mechanical innovations focused on the areas closest to the sampling process, including the bearing, platter, tonearm, motor drive, isolation base, and record clamp. Ars Machinae’s philosophy is absolute silence from the machine is the goal of any record playback system.
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• The 12” arm consists of an inner tube made of carbon thread, while the outer tube is made of local wood that is hand selected and dried for years until perfect for the intended application.
• The tube combination offers maximum stiffness, damping and reduces unwanted resonances to inaudible levels.
• The stabilized unipivot tonearm bearing design is made of tungsten carbide.
• The bearing is guided laterally on a bushing made of graphite on the guide surfaces.
• On-the-fly VTA adjustment is accomplished through a smooth tower-mounted knob.
• Up to three tonearms can be used by adding optional arm board mounting assemblies.
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• Using five layers assembled into one, each layer has different natural frequencies including: aluminum, graphite, and mineral-filled acrylic that damp each other.
• Our specially designed platter layer bolting technology optimizes stiffness and damping.
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• The platter bearing is a completely new design. It has the advantages of inverted and non-inverted bearings and is impervious to environmental factors.
• The bearing axle is made of hardened stainless steel coated with a diamond-like carbon. The bearing bush is made of graphite. The platter is guided radially at two bearing points with different diameters.
• The bearing materials guarantees the lowest friction and extremely long service life.
• The bearing housing is also specially designed to optimize the avoidance of vibrations— what is not there cannot vibrate.
• The platter is supported vertically by a ball made of high-performance ceramics from the aerospace industry.
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• The Motor is a specially treated 2-phase synchronous motor with plain bearings produced for us by Karlo Klein in Germany.
• The motor has a synchronous movement tied to an alternating voltage.
• The speed is therefore linked to the frequency of the AC voltage via the number of pole pairs and offers the highest torque and speed regulation.
• Klein’s obsessive treatment of the engine bearings is particularly important. As in our platter bearing, he polishes the bearings to the highest level so they run noiselessly.
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• The damping effect is at the limit of what is technically possible. A patented, molecularly heavy, and very fine powder creates intensive damping at all frequencies.
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• Co-Founder, Ars Machinae
• Diplom Ingenieur (FH) Mechanical Engineering
• Coburg University of Applied Sciences and Art
In addition to my development work at Ars Machinae, I have been a Senior Design Engineer at Waldrich Coburg, Germany's premier CNC machine tool machine manufacturer. There I focus on designing the milling heads, a central component of the machines. The vibration behavior is of crucial importance for these components. The accuracy and quality of the machined parts depend on this parameter. This core knowledge and experience enable me to improve the sound quality of a turntable with mechanical solutions. We also highly value industrial design, as evidenced by our Red Dot Design Award. Principal work on that side was performed by my partner, Alexandra Krug, a noted designer, and creative compliment to my strengths as an engineer. My work at Coburg also provides our Company with access to exceptional local suppliers with expertise in high-tech materials and machine part manufacturing sector providing us the resources needed to faithfully execute on our collective design objectives.
