Werner roeschlau and the aMg Factory
Photo 1 (far left), cNc machine milling V12 plinth. Photo 2 (left), finished V12 plinth. Photo 3 (right), computerized lathe.
Photo 4 (far right), lathe fitted with bits to mill bearings.
Photo 5 (bottom left), microscope for Qc.
Photo 6 (bottom right), hydrodynamic turntable bearing.
Werner Roeschlau’s Analog Manufaktur Germany occupies
a three-story row-house in a little village near the Danube
River about an hour north of Munich. As I noted in the text,
Roeschlau has been manufacturing precision parts at this
facility for some of the world’s best-known turntables for over
a decade. During the last couple of years he has begun to put
his own novel ideas about turntable and tonearm design into
production, with the AMG Viella 12 being his debut.
Like so many of the great German and Swiss analog
engineers I’ve met, Roeschlau is a most interesting and
cultured man with a fascinating backstory (for which, see my
review). As I’ve already noted, he has been involved in milling-
machine work since he was a teenager, while the fact that
he later became an engineer and an airline pilot makes an
interesting parallel with Ernst Benz, founder of the cartridge-
manufacturing firm Benz Micro, who was/is also a pilot. A
man of unbounded imagination and exceptionally varied skills,
Roeschlau has already invented one of the most ingenious
tonearm bearings around. It would not surprise me in the
least to see him execute other novel ideas in the near-future.
In a world of me-toos, he is the genuine article—an original
thinker with the manufacturing experience and engineering
background to flawlessly execute his own designs.
When Robert Harley, Jim Hannon, and I visited Werner’s
Bavarian factory, we got to see a V12 being made. The first
stop was a CNC milling machine (Photo 1), which turns a block
of water-cut aluminum into a finished plinth in about an hour
and fifteen minutes (Photo 2). The CNC milling machine is on
the first floor of the AMG factory. Opposite it on the same
floor is a 384,000 German mark computerized lathe (Photo
3) that is used to turn the V12’s platter, tonearm, bearing
housing, counterweights, etc., depending on the bits attached
(Photo 4). (Everything but the V12’s turntable belt is made in-
house—to the highest standards.)
A computerized saw is used to cut bar-metal to size,
depending on the part to be milled, and on the shop’s second
floor, a microscope (Photo 5) is used to QC the small parts
used in Werner’s ’table and ’arm, such as the “helicopter-
like” spring-steel bearing here pictured. Tonearm and motor
assembly is done on the third floor.
It is worth noting that the V12’s level of craftsmanship
generally costs a great deal more money than what Roeschlau
is asking (and in fact does cost a great deal more money—on
the order of $25,000 to $40,000—in the record-player parts
and sub-assemblies that AMG fabricates for other concerns). It
is also worth reiterating that many companies don’t precision-
machine in house (because of the huge investment required
to purchase CNC machines—and the skills and experience
necessary to operate them). The constituent parts of many of
the most popular and highly regarded ’tables currently on the
market are not machined in-house but fabricated by suppliers
and rebranded and assembled by the company selling the
’table (although those parts are, it should also be noted, often
designed in-house and custom-built to order).
Just to show that Roeschlau is still thinking well ahead
of the curve. My last photo (Photo 6) shows a prototype of
an experimental, self-lubricating, hydrodynamic turntable-
bearing, which floats the platter on a microscopically thin
layer of oil (like the Walker Black Diamond Mk III floats its
platter on a microscopically thin layer of air). This nifty
device—yet another example of fresh thinking—will probably
make its appearance in a subsequent (and far more expensive)
AMG turntable. JV
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