J.Sikora Standard Max Supreme 15th Anniversary Turntable

The J.Sikora company was established in 2007 in Lublin. Its first turntable offered the same year was called Standard. It took as many as seven years to prepare the top design, Reference, which was introduced in 2014. In the following years, it was joined by the lower-priced Initial turntable, followed by tonearms. The Standard Max Supreme 15th Anniversary presented here was created to celebrate the brand's 15th anniversary. It is one of three planned, numbered copies with the High Fidelity 20th Anniversary logo.

If you take a look at the development of the J. Sikora Company you should be impressed by how sensible this enterprise has been. That is, the consistency of the offer, the technology, the story and the people behind the brand. It's a kind of internal 'coherence' that we often talk about in the context of sound, which makes it natural. Yes, precisely 'naturalness' is the right word, the term I was looking for. Because that's what Mr. Sikora, turntable and tonearm designer Janusz Sikora and his son, managing director Robert, are. Such is also, also responsible for calibration, Adam Niezbecki, production manager. This is an important asset.

So the company's development seems well thought out and internally consistent. There have been no sudden moves, "cash-grabs" or other crooked actions in it's history. Therefore, the appearance of the newest model in the offer, the tested Standard Max Supreme 15th Anniversary, was not only to show what can be done with the Standard, so to speak, but also to fill the gap between the Reference and Standard Max models. Therefore, it was a logical move in the development of the range. After the limited production ends, the annotation 15th Anniversary will disappear from the name, but the model itself will remain.

20th Anniversary of High Fidelity & J.Sikora

Therefore what we get is another level to this palimpsest. For here we are testing the first of several, numbered units with the High Fidelity logo.

So we are celebrating together and doubly, the 15th anniversary of J.Sikora company and the 20th anniversary of our magazine. Our anniversary logo is on the plate on the left, next to the display, on the record weight and, with the aforementioned number, on the right, right next to the motor. And there is also, of course, the corresponding certificate signed by all the people involved. Also part of this cooperation is an away meeting of the Krakow Sonic Society at the manufacturer's headquarters in Lublin, the first of its kind in the 20-year history of KSS; report will be published on September 16^th.

The turntable in this version is technically no different from the Standard Max Supreme 15th Anniversary model. The point is not to improve anything, because at this point, as all the people from J.Sikora company unanimously say, it is impossible to improve anything without changing the concept of the whole, and that in this version you get everything they are able to offer within the Max platform (I mean the series, not the streaming service). This version is simply a joyful, joint celebration of two brands: J.Sikora and High Fidelity.

Standard Max Supreme 15^th Anniversary

J.Sikora's lineup stretches between the powerful Reference turntable and the entry-level model called Initial. That is, in simple terms, between twenty-eight and one hundred kilograms. In between, you'll find another series, the Standard. These are the base versions. Both Standard and Initial can be upgraded to the Max version. So these are "doped up" base versions of these turntables, the Initial Max and Standard Max. It is already known that in time, the Reference Max will be added as well.

The "maximized" models differ from the basic ones primarily in their bases, but also in the number of motors, record weight, glass mat on the platter and type of power supply. For example, moving from Initial to Initial Max model means an increase in total weight from 28 to 51 kg. Getting to the tested version, on the other hand, will add another 48 kg to that, reaching a respectable 98 kg. And this is one of the main developments. After all, J.Sikora turntables are mass-loader, uncoupled designs, and vibrations are extinguished in them in a large mass. So the heavier they are, the easier it is to get rid of such mechanical interference.

In order for this vibration damping to be effective and have the desired characteristics, many different materials need to be used, not just one. Each of them has different mechanical properties and therefore "sounds" differently, as we say in audio. As Robert Sikora said, his dad, when designing the original Standard, spent a lot of time just selecting different materials. The first unit, for example, was made entirely of bronze. It was possible because J.Sikora a fully-equipped metalworking workshop on hand. In the tested version we find not only more powerful components, but also better materials.

BASE

Let's start again. The J.Sikora Standard Max Supreme 15th Anniversary turntable is a mass-loader, uncoupled, belt-driven design with two motors. It weighs 98 kg and is much more compact than the Reference, as it measures 620 x 350 x 410 mm.

Aluminum of varying hardness, cast iron, brass, copper, steel, and ceramic components were used in the construction of this turntable. Brass replaces, in many places, the aluminum used in the Standard and Standard Max versions, such as in the platter base. On the other hand, the inverted bearing with ceramic ball and carbide, the motors and the controller are exactly the same solutions we know from the top model in the brand's catalog, the Reference.

The are actually bases, made of aluminum. In the anniversary version, they are painted black or white with a high gloss finish. They stand on a rigid system based on a ball bearing. This is a solution developed by the German company Finite Elemente (more HERE), and in Poland primarily by Franc Audio Accessories (more HERE). In the case of the tested turntable, these are Inox steel cones and brass platters with a zirconium oxide ball in between.

The lower base operates as the first level of vibration damping system. Mounted on it is a green display on which we can read messages from the controller, as well as five buttons—for changing the speed of 33 1/3 and 45 rpm and stop, as well as two for precise speed setting. A main bearing with a platter is mounted on the upper platform, decoupled from the lower one by the aforementioned ceramic ball cones. Also permanently mounted on it is an arm base, again made of brass, but also Inox steel and aluminum. It allows mounting both 9-inch or 12-inch arm. Two arms can be optionally mounted on this model. At the front, under the cartridge stands one motor, the other stands on the lower platform.

PLATTER

The platter in the tested turntable weighs as much as 18 kg. It was made of Delrin and cast iron and is fused with brass, steel and copper components. For some time now, since the purchase of the CNC machine, the company has been making it in-house. The company materials read:

The new Standard Max Jubilee is an exceptional turntable. It uses unique combination of metals and alloys, known from the Reference model. Aluminum components have been replaced with brass ones. Separators at the base of the platter are made of steel, copper and solid brass plates. The motor housings, as in the Reference turntable, are made of 1 cm thick stainless steel with special improved internal damping, and the bases are made of 2 cm thick brass slices.

Material changes have also been made to the armboard. The new armboard is made of brass, steel and aluminum. The use of brass in key areas of the turntable has brought its performance closer in most sonic aspects to the benchmark level set by the Reference turntable.

15th Anniversary, jsikora.eu https://jsikora.eu/15th-anniversary, accessed: 27.08.2024.

We talked about it when we tested the Inital Max HERE turntable - Delrin is one of the brand names for polyoxymethylene (POM), a thermoplastic organic chemical compound widely used in industry; other names include: Ertacetal, Tecaform and Boracetal. It was invented in 1952 by German chemist Hermann Staudinger, who would receive the Nobel Prize in Chemistry a year later. For industrial use, it was developed in 1960 by the American company DuPont, the same company we got Teflon, Kapton and other materials used in audio from. Two years later, the German company Celanese presented its own version of polyoxymethylene, called Celcon.

Delrin has many interesting characteristics, including machinability, good sliding and frictional properties, chemical and water absorption resistance, very good dimensional stability and high impact strength, and, above all, very good mechanical properties, resulting in favorable resonance distribution and good internal damping. It is these last two elements that have made it widely used in audio.

In the Reference model, a graphite glass plate is placed on the platter. We will also get it when upgrading from the Standard to the Max and Max Supreme versions. In the cutout in the middle an air craft grade aluminum disc is inserted. A record weight is placed on the record. It is made of nickel-plated bronze and brass and is dampened with rubber O-rings. Notches on its circumference serve the same purpose. In the version in question, the High Fidelity logo is applied to the brass insert. It's very heavy, so in order not to scratch the rack surface, we also get a leather pad, something like a "coaster" for beer. It can, incidentally, be used for that as well.

DRIVE

The cheapest turntable in the company's range, the Initial, is driven by a single DC (asynchronous) motor. When we look at the company's entire range, it is not difficult to conclude that Janusz Sikora, the designer, believes in mass and in the power/torque of the drive. The point is that going to the next level, for example, to the Initial Max model means adding a second motor, two motors are used also for the Standard line, and the Reference has as many as four.

The motors used by J.Sikora are DC (asynchronous) designs from EBM-Papst. Their housings are made of Inox steel, but with brass bases. The top wall of the housing is more than a centimeter thick, so the motors can stand close to the cartridge. The measurements show no interference from this proximity. Inox steel is an important part of the overall design. As its designer, Janusz Sikora, said on the occasion of the Reference model test, the idea is that it is very "sticky" in processing, so that it's a material that doesn't ‘ring' like, for example, hardened steel. Its structure is pasty and is very difficult to work with, because it sticks to the knife. Hence the processing of this material is relatively difficult and time-consuming.

Inside the housings, the motors are separated from them using silicone and fixed with polyamide screws, to decouple them from the outer walls. The pulleys on the motor axles were CNC-machined out of aircraft-grade aluminum. Brass plates were additionally mounted on top of them. Torque is transferred from the aluminum rollers mounted on the motor axle to the platter via rubber belts. To improve the platter's responsiveness to changes made by the controller, which watches over the precision of the rotation, two rather than one belt per motor were used.

The standard model, in both the Basic and Max versions, came with a basic power supply. While it was possible to buy a Reference power supply later, it was an additional expense. With the tested version, we receive the top power supply as a part of the package, in addition with a front panel painted the same as the turntable's base. Its front panel features a standby switch and two displays on LED modules, showing the input voltage and that, after adjustment.

The display is blue. Why, I ask myself? Since the one on the turntable is green, maybe this one should be that color, too? More about my fascination with the color blue in technology in the article Of importance, or why I don't like the color blue in technology, more HERE.

Finally, let's add that the first fifteen copies of the Max Anniversary Standard will be numbered. A separate numbering will be given to the XX | High Fidelity version. And one more thing: the turntable looks excellent. It is perfectly made, finished, and its design has something special about it that inspires respect.

SOUND

HOW WE LISTENED

The J.Sikora Standard Max Supreme 15th Anniversary turntable was tested in a High Fidelity reference system. It stood on two carbon fiber top shelves, on a Finite Elemente Master Reference Pagode Edition Mk II rack. The tested set included also the J.Sikora KV12 Max arm, which is one of the best of its kind on the market; you can its test HERE.

While testing the turntable, I paired it with Miyajima Laboratory Destiny cartridge (more HERE). I used DS Audio ST-50, a solidified gel used to clean the needle. I also used an RCM Audio Sensor Prelude IC phono preamplifier, from which the signal was forwarded via a Crystal Cable Absolute Dream interconnect. I connected the preamp to a Nordost QKORE6 artificial ground (more HERE). For the speed controller, I used a Soyaton Benchmark Mk² power cable.

ALBUMS USED FOR THE TEST - a selection

John Coltrane Quartet, Ballads, Impulse!/Speakers Corner Records AS-32, 180 g LP (1962/2003).

Kraftwerk, Tour The France Soundtracks, EMI Records 591 708 1, 2 x 180 g LP (2003); reviewed HERE.

Alice Coltrane, Journey In Satchidananda, Impulse! B003667501, "Acoustic Sounds Series," Test Press LP (1971/2022).

U2, The Joshua Tree, Island Records 208 219, LP (1987).

Clifford Brown and Max Roach, Study In Brown, EmArcy/Universal Music K.K., UCJU-9072, 200 g LP (1955/2007).

Pet Shop Boys, Please, Parlophone PCS 7303, LP (1986).

Frank Sinatra, Sing And Dance With Frank Sinatra, Columbia/Impex Records IMP6036, "70th Anniversary Edition," Test Press LP (1950/2020).

Patricia Barber, Café Blue, Premonition/Impex Records IMP-6035-1, 1 step Impex Records, 2 x 180 g LP, 45 RPM (1994/2020); more HERE.

Iggy Pop, Trevor Horn, Phoebe Lunny, Personal Jesus, Deutsche Grammophon 00289 486 5726, Limited Edition, 12" 45 RPM LP (2024).

Benny Goodman Orchestra, Benny Goodman Orchestra Feat. Anita O'Day, Jazzhaus 101704, "Bigbands Live," 2 x 180 g LP (2011/2013).

People sometimes ask me whether it is really the case that the construction of a turntable predetermines its sound. In other words, does the choice of one or another type of design, and there are, in fact, only a few of them, always result in a particular type of sound that we can assign to it. My answer consists of two parts. In the first, I usually say that it is indeed the case that the designer's choices in terms of uncoupling method, materials, etc., affect the sound and produce repeated results. In the second part, however, I add that the best go beyond these limitations and for them it doesn't matter at all whether it's a decoupled turntable or not, light or heavy, made of metal, polyurethane foam like Rega, wood, acrylic or POM. That's exactly the kind of turntable the tested one is.

For when I played Say It (Over and Over Again), the opening track of the John Coltrane Quartet's Ballads album I got saturation, I got warmth, I also got resolution. This is how this album is recorded, and if it sounds any different, regardless of the medium, it means that either there is something wrong with the material in question, or with the sound source. If, by the end of You Don't Know What Love Is, Jimmy Garrison's bass and the leader's sax don't go very low, if they don't even jump out of the speakers, that's a sign that you need to think about your system, and perhaps you should choose a different version of the album.

The material, recorded by Rudy Van Gelder in December 1961 and September and November 1962 at the Van Gelder Recording Studio in Englewood Cliffs, his new studio, with a large room with a high ceiling, sounds extremely intimate. After all, these are ballads, right? J.Sikora's turntable with a KV12 Max tonearm and Miyajima Labs Destiny cartridge played it as if it was meant from the beginning to be a recording to calm the nerves, as if it was about maximum inner tranquility, with maximum emotional saturation (I'll refer to this system as: turntable, later in this test).

And at the same time there was an incredible amount of energy, and vitality in it. I mean a lot! And not just in the opening All Or Nothing At All short drum solo, but in any, any track. Combined with the absolute calmness this turntable conveys music with, it resulted in something special, on an absolute scale. Because, on the one hand, the sound was velvety, it was deep and almost warm - that's how this turntable sounds, but on the other hand, under that layer of polish there was emotion, energy, there was drive.

That's why Benny Goodman's large orchestra from the Benny Goodman Orchestra Feat. Anita O'Day album, a 1959 mono concert recording made at the Stadhalle in Freiburg, sounded so energizing, so loud. But, and this is something I look for in music and the equipment used to play it, with complete inner peace. This tension between the external and the internal is crucial for me to talk about high-end level performance. And the Standard Max Supreme 15th Anniversary is an absolute high-end.

Absolute, that is, regardless of price. Only three times before have I heard something of this caliber at my place, playing perhaps with a little more freedom and three-dimensional, but these may be minor differences—I'm thinking of the TechDAS Air Force One. In contrast, the SME 20/3A with the Dynavector DRT XV-1s cartridge was even more precise, even more open. Although memory is unreliable, emotions sink in for a long time. Therefore, so I feel, I can also say that the tested turntable is significantly better than the first version of the Reference model, which I listened to at home in 2016, and is very close to its latest version. Or maybe it's even on the same level.

It's a bit of guessing, but I have found out many times that just this type of emotional "matrix" is very accurate. Therefore, I decided to take a chance and formulate what you have just read. The tested J.Sikora turntable, despite its huge mass, plays with finesse and without compressing the sound, which happens notoriously to mass turntables. While it's not as 'wide' and as incredibly effortlessly playing as Rega's ultra-lightweight Naia model, I didn't particularly miss it either.

The high mass of this turntable manifests itself in the deepening of the sound. This is something I used to hear as well, with the Kuzma Stabi XL. Interestingly, the bass of the Polish design, incredibly low and colorful, is not exaggeratedly (i.e. unnaturally) contoured at the very bottom of the scale, but rather somewhat soft. This is excellent news, since hardening of the attack is one of the many problems of heavy turntables. On the other hand, lightweight designs simply don't go that low. And the Standard Max Supreme in its anniversary version is, next to the already mentioned Air Force One, the best turntable I've heard in this respect.

In Iggy Pop's voice singing "Personal Jesus" in Trevor Horn's version, from the 45 rpm maxi-single from his Echoes. Ancient & Modern album, you could hear his age, but it wasn't drawn out. The slight sibilants that appeared from time to time simply spoke of the way this material was recorded and mastered, not the turntable's elevated timbre. The later, as I said, is low and dark. Therefore, also synthesizer recordings, light in nature, will sound just cool with it. Like "West End Girls," a track from the duo's debut album Pet Shop Boys, played by me from the original first release.

So, it's not that J.Sikora plays well only the top-quality, limited edition, fancy rare, and test presses, etc. That too, because both Frank Sinatra from the test press of the Sing and Dance with Frank Sinatra album in the American Impex Records reissue, and Patricia Barber, also from the test press of the Cafe Blue album, released by the same label as Sinatra, only that in 1 Step technique, and others, all of them were perfectly musical, dense, resolving, dynamic and just plain cool. But listening to records that are years old, there will be no problems with them, that many, often even very expensive designs, attack us with.

And this is true for several reasons. The first thing is that the sound will not be too bright with them, nor sharp. Obviously, the presentation will be lighter than with high-end recordings, it will also have a higher tonal balance. But it won't be brightening, there will be no harshness. The tested turntable perfectly suppresses fast runs, not necessarily related to the music, but rather to the pressing, and which cause problems for turntables. That's why by the way, so many music lovers choose lightweight decoupled designs, they can do that too. Only that they also suppress some of the musical information. And the Standard Max Supreme 15th Anniversary suppresses only distortions.

The second thing, pops & cracks. A thing embarrassing for vinyl, but so inscribed in this format that we try not to notice it pushing out of consciousness the obvious thing: it is distortion. The design from Lublin, on the other hand, possessed the ability to suppress this type of distortion and it is almost impossible to hear that we are dealing with vinyl. The same is true for the noise cause by the stylus traveling inside the grove. It is incredibly low here. And yet, there's plenty of treble, and if the brass hits hard, as in the Clifford Brown and Max Roach's Cherokee opening track of the Study in Brown album, you can truly hear the slam, powerful hi-hat, indicating who is one of the leaders here, not a hired sideman.

Because, that's the third thing, the tested turntable, at least in this configuration, is extremely, above-average differentiating. That is, it shows changes in sound as if it did it its whole life, and as if nothing else was at stake. That's why each of the previously indicated recordings was different, each had a different vibe, built not only by the music itself, but also by the way it was recorded and released. It is with J.Sikora's turntable that one can hear that sound, or the sonic manifestation of mechanical recording, is an equivalent component of music, that without this aspect it is limited, incomplete. It is with it that one realizes that the vast majority of people do not know, in fact, what they are listening to. Even from records, seemingly perfectly familiar to them.

So I reach for the ripped-to-the-bone, full of pops & cracks album The Joshua Tree by U2 in its original 1987 release, and I get, on the one hand, the open, powerful sound, and on the other, the somewhat muted one that this album features. This is why, among other reasons, I prefer to listen to the 1980 Boy album and, three years older, War. But it is, after all, excellent music prepared by outstanding producers Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno. That's why I listen to it with pleasure, with commitment, not caring that the drums are far back, making the impact of the kick drum and even the snare drum get lost in the sound of the guitars.

On the other hand, I pull out from the white envelope, a not described by the publisher on the label, press test of Alice Coltrane's album entitled Journey in Satchidananda, in the 2023 version released by Impulse! as part of the "Acoustic Sounds Series," and I drift off. This is extremely internally rich music, with lots of information, colors, dynamic shifts, etc. It's here that you can hear that the stereophony offered by this turntable is different from most turntables I know. It resembles, in fact, what you get from an analog tape recorder, and also, this is one of the reasons why it's still my reference, from the Ayon Audio CD-35 HF Edition SACD player.

This is stereophony that does not "attempt" or "impose" anything. Sound sources are shown super-precisely, but they are also not at all drawn out, nor are they cut out from the background. They interact with other sources, and at first glance it may even seem that the soundstage as such is not there at all. But when you get used to this presentation you will find that this is an illusion. Because a very wide and extremely deep soundstage is built in front of us, with lots of planes and even slight shifts in time domain. And yet it reaches us all together, in one moment, as if it were a thick foam in which we are immersed. It's as if the turntable carries all the acoustics from the record into our room, pushing out the air and acoustics of that room.

Summary

If I were to sum up in one word what I heard with the Standard Max Supreme 15th Anniversary turntable it would be: quiet. In a way, it's in contrast to the excellent dynamics and powerful bass that this turntable delivers, for example, in "Tour de France Étape 1" from the Tour de France album by Kraftwerk, but that's how I perceive it. It's a design that brings music in such an unbelievably "laid back" way that it's hard to sit still while listening to it. A paradox, but that's what music is.

The turntable perfectly suppresses pops & cracks and other distortion, and delivers a precise, open, very resolving treble. But also without artificially sharpening or contouring it. Like the bass, the treble here is somewhat soft, with an intrinsic, natural softness. Perhaps that's why vocals sound so fantastic with it. I didn't mention the midrange before, and that's because I was looking at where this turntable would take me. From the list of albums I had prepared, two, maybe three, were actually played; I selected the others in the course of the test, stimulated by one need or another, by impulse.

And I didn't mention it, because the midrange with this turntable is gently "captured" in time, as if it comes to us supported by a "net" that secures and locks it, that keeps it from brightening and hardness. In the sense that it is very natural, and thus does not impose its presence. That's why it can be such a surprise to many of you, if in the right company, the sound of this turntable - actually warm, dense, low. This is a top high-end, and it will allow you to forget about the system and focus on buying more records. And it doesn't matter what kind of music you play, how was it pressed, and in what condition the record is. This is because the music shines through the mechanics without any hindrance. For me, this is a top example of LP sound, hence our GOLD FINGERPRINT.

Technical specifications (according to the manufacturer)

TURNTABLE