Feedback received from Gary on his receiving the modified ebony finished turntable

"Hello Steve,
Thank you so much for the record deck, it is stunning :)
The photos you had sent during its creation and birth looked great, but to see how good it looks in real life is something else.

The woodwork is flawless and all your care and attention to detail really makes this look beautiful. It's currently sitting in its rightful place and isn't being showy in any way (which was exactly what I had hoped for, it already looks right at home there).

It really is better than I'd hoped it would be, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the ebony veneer changes its tone in the daylight tomorrow. 

Thank you for all your fantastic work with this Steve, and I know it's going to make me so happy as the tone arm cable burns in a little more too. I've only had the chance to play one album tonight, and so far it's revealing so much more detail (and balancing out song structures) in a record I've had in heavy rotation since the day Screamadelica 1st came out.

It's going to be so much fun listening to all the other records I've got, and discovering all those moments where I never knew that there were extra instruments hidden in the mix. I do fear for any rogue kazoos which might now pop up though !

Thanks for all the attention to detail not just in making this project, but for the care in packing it up (which was in tip top condition when it arrived with UPS). 

Genuinely thanks for taking this pipe dream and running with it all the way to the end, you've really been brilliant to deal with (and of course Marie's scones need to be mentioned in the glowing praise here too). 

I have a quiet confidence that I'll be in touch again soon to ask if you can make an SUT.

Thanks for everything, you have made a true one off here and I'm so proud of it already."

Sanjiv from London commissioned a heavy weight record puck.

Made of ebony and polished gunmetal with ebony cores inside the gunmetal.

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Sanjiv’s comments / feedback

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"Hi, it has arrived and is working great.
Sound stage has improved a lot, much more focused and detailed.
I was using Stillpoint before this and your puck beats it hands down.

I am using it on a Micro Seiki RX1500.
Thanks for producing such a beautiful piece. It’s a piece of art "

Ebony armboard for a Technics SL-1210 MKV to fit a Kuzma Stogi Reference

This arm required an extra deep armboard dishing and the fitting kit is sub-plith.

"Hi Steve,

Tonearm fits perfectly; I've attached a few pictures.

The sound is leaps and bounds ahead of my previous set up, even with a
fairly modded 1210, I just wasn't prepared for the increase in
soundstage and the shear clarity of vocals and every type of
instrument!

The armboard is a fantastic job, beautiful, rock solid and was easy to
fit with the supplied bolts; I can't thank you enough for such
excellent service.

Kind regards,

Alex"

Pair of Birch plywood GRF Narrow / tall cabinets and crossover modifications

"Dear Steve,
Please feel free to include the text below in your customer feedback section.

In spring 2018 I asked Steve to make me a pair of GRF Narrows. I had
acquired from my father-in-law a pair of 15" Monitor Golds which he
had had from new in early 1973. He had built unported cabinets for
them which were close in dimensions and design to Tannoy Lancasters. I
did not believe that the speakers were delivering all that they could,
and were being held back by their enclosures. Treble was OK, but bass
was curtailed and congested. Steve fitted the speakers into the new
cabinets and I collected the finished job and installed them in my
home. I have been listening for a week or so now, and all the expected
benefits have become apparent. The stereo image is taller, wider and
deeper, and much more stable than before. The whole sound is more
lively, more credible. The bass is greatly extended, and much more
taut and agile than before. Treble is cleaner and crisper. In short,
the music simply dances.

Hope all is well with you,

Best regards,

Peter"

MartinT of the Art of Sound forum - Ebony Tonearm board for his super modified Technics SL-1210. Pictured here on Martin T's SL-1210

"Steve made a custom ebony armboard to fit my Dynavector DV507-II arm to my Technics SL-1210 turntable. Beautifully finished, the board (more like a billet due to its depth) fits perfectly into the recess and was accurately machined for the correct offset. it also features a very deep brown, almost black, colour which looks superb on the graphite finish deck. What I hear the ebony armboard doing is negating a slight edginess that my previous steel board was imparting to the presentation. Nothing too obvious, but I would call it greater tonal expression - making the music more coherent if you like. There is a sense of harmonious music-making with terrific delineation of fine detail in the soundstage. It's in the 'in-between' spaces that I notice more going on, such as mid-left and mid-right of stage. Non-edgy, non-tiring and pulling much fine detail from the mix, it just sounds right. I think there is an anti-resonant property to ebony that provides damping but does not dull the sound. It seems that ebony is an excellent interface between arm and deck. Strongly recommended."

Ebony Armboard for Technics SL-1210 in France

"I received the board today. Beautiful work.

I showed it to my wife, who upon touching it said "c'est beau, c'est
si doux". Basically, that means it looks great and feels good to the
touch. Compared to the aluminium armboard, I believe the beginning and end of
notes is more natural. That is more natural attack and delay."

Martin from Norway - Solid hardwood tonearm board for SL-1210 and Jelco arm with the Ammonite up-rated armbase. Pictured here on Martin's SL-1210​

"Got the armboard and fittings safe and sound in the mail yesterday, a couple of minutes later it was easily installed on my deck. All I can say - I am really stunned by your work and craftmanship. So perfect! I really love the look and feel of ebony wood used, excellent polish! The immediate sonic upgrade from my aluminium armboard is really a step up in clarity. Bass is firmer, and therefore the soundstage is singing all the way up. Really worthwhile upgrade for my turntable!"

​A pair of replacement anti-skate / bias weights for Alphason HR-100 and Dynavector DV-505 tonearms.

I received this feedback from the customer.

"Just to say that the weights arrived and they are superb - thank you.
Excellent service - really appreciated - thank you!"

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Steve from Morray - Pair of Narrow GRF-R specials (Sent on Pallet to Morray Scotland)

"A good fun Sunday!  I have been able to have a play most of today.   

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 Everything from "Van the man" to Rammstein and some Trance!!  Some Nancy Griffiths

and Leonard Cohen thrown in for good measure!   

Grip and control is the best description. The sound "signature" is the same  but just MUCH better.  

Never imagined a "box" could make such a difference. Voice clearer and much easier to make out

words which were previously difficult.   

After much twisting and turning ( the feet work very well) the resting place seems to be to the outside of the slate plinths, and surprisingly as close to the back wall as the cables/terminals will allow. Toe in and toe out all gave some pluses but also disadvantages, so no angles. I'm about 5m away and the speakers are just over 2m apart, about 1m from side walls.   

Its always difficult/uncertain when ordering something like this Steve, but I have to say its been superbly done, and we are both totally delighted with the results both aesthetically and in terms of performance."  

What's this it Andy (BTH K10A) of the Art of Sound forum - Upscaled Birch plywood, GRF-R cabinets for 18" Dual Concentric (co-axial dual channel) British Thompson Houston drivers

"I asked Steve to develop a version of his rectangular GRF type cabinet to suit BTH K10A 18” dual concentric drivers. These are are quite scarce and whilst I have all the period technical brochures on these drivers there are no Thiel Small parameters available for them (nor surprisingly the Jensen V2 / Western Electric 4181a which share the same basket and cone). So, armed with just the scantest of information Steve did the calcs and up-scaled the GRF cabinet design to suit. Steve recommended using birch ply in the construction and the quality of build is exceptional. The cabinets are certainly inert as I can detect no vibration at even the lowest frequencies and the practical suggestion to place them on casters is a godsend given that each cabinet with driver weights circa 100Kg. The finish I wanted is probably unusual nowadays but I have a period house with a lot of mahogany and walnut furniture so a rich mahogany it had to be. The colour is just right and an added bonus was the natural figuring birch ply has. I was expecting a less dramatic effect but everyone who has seen them thinks it is some exotic veneer rather than stained and waxed ply. Steve also built small external boxes for the crossovers, which gives me easy access to them or the flexibility to go active. I have an original 1950’s bass reflex cabinet for a K10A so I already knew the quality of sound reproduction sound these drivers are capable of but the GRF type cabinet certainly improved the lower registers, giving a deeper, faster bass line and more certainly more definition than the bass reflex cabinet. It’s not easy to describe these speakers but compared to say a Tannoy 15” they reveal tonal nuances throughout the entire frequency range that the Tannoy’s seem to miss. Stereo imaging and soundstage width and depth is excellent with a very natural presentation of music and the cabinets seem to perform a disappearing trick despite their enormous size.

From the first enquiry through to the finish of the commission Steve kept me informed and discussed all options as the build progressed. The quality of workmanship is excellent and the most important criteria - quality of sound reproduction - was delivered."

Non-Smoking Man of the Hifi Wigwam forum - Alphason tonearm rewire (silver), Custom tonearm cable (silver) and Cranfield Rock ebony armboard

​"The Alphason rewire Steve mentioned is for me and is the latest in a series of custom jobs he has done for me. Steve has a wideranging knowledge of this hifi caper and his engineering skills and experience are invaluable in searching with his clients for optimum solutions to often left field ideas."

"I Installed the Rock. Its had a rewire (silver litz) and a new armboard (Ebony) - thanks to Magna Audio. There is superior clarity allround and the high frequencies are much improved. The stock armboard is steel and mine was not quite the right position for the Alpason H100MCS so Steve was especially particular in making sure the mounting distance was correct for the new armboard."

Hayward of the Hifi Wigwam - Mid bass horns and Upper mid horns (in a 5 way system), Bespoke Ebony tonearm board for arm pillar - SME V arm

"I asked Steve to help me realise my ambition for a 5 way horn system. Mainly to find a solution for the mid-bass horn and the upper- mid horn as well as en ebony armboard for my turntable. He was super enthusiastic from the start and after listening to my ideas came back with others way more difficult to make and much better. His communication is first class and the execution of the project  very thorough. The finished horns sound fantastic and are finished beautifully.  I would thoroughly  recommend his services."

Graham67 of the Hifi Wigwam - Tannoy GRF (narrow version), Garrard 401 plith top/armboard inc fitting and other various projects

"I asked Steve to build a set of narrow GRF cabinets for some 15” Tannoy HPD drivers.  At all times, i found Steve a pleasure to deal with.  He offered innovative solutions, listened to my ideas and kept me posted of progress and costs at each milestone of the build.  Even when i changed my mind on the colour, it was no trouble.  Steve stopped at nothing to ensure I was happy with the result which i still am!

I have asked Steve to perform several other jobs since then, a new arm plate for my TT, speaker and amp repairs, soldering and even fabricating buttons for a high-end Japanese amp.  Each job has been completed to a high standard in the same fuss-free manner.

I highly recommend Steve and Magna Audio to anyone needing a skilled engineer."

Tannoy man (Art of sound) - Ebony tonearm board and fitting kit for a Jelco 750d tone arm

"Thanks Steve, I got it on Sat, a work of Art mate much appreciated. I removed the old arm and fitted the new one with no problems and it sounds fantastic, I had intended to fit a brand new Denon 103r but the Shure m55e was making such beautiful music I left it as it was."

Al Sands (New Zealand) - Stainless Steel Counterweight and custom Stainless Steel lateral weigths for Origin Live Silver arm, which is based on the RB250

"I put the Audio Technica LH-18 head shell on my Technics SL1200 (it sounded awesome with the Denon DL103) but I found that there wasn’t enough mass in the existing counterweight to balance the arm. Blue Tack to the rescue, but it looked terrible. I asked a machinist where I live in Wellington, New Zealand to machine a new counterweight – he had no idea – and it took him two weeks to reach that conclusion! Steve at Magna Audio came to my rescue, he took my order, machined the counterweight, and had it in the post to New Zealand within 2 days!

Now that I had at my disposal an excellent metal machinist doing great work at reasonable cost I set about giving him a harder job. That was to make a pair of lateral weights for my Origin Live Silver MK1 tonearm. I’d seen the modification (courtesy of TWL, just search on Google for ‘twl strange tonearm tweak’ for information) but instead of budget bullet fishing weights I wanted a professional look. Steve to the rescue. He made a pair of great looking lateral weights that look and sound fantastic.

I’m really happy with the work Steve has done, but more importantly I’m glad there are guys like Steve out there.

Keep up the great work Steve, and see you down the track when I put my order in for the awesome looking African Blackwood tonearm boards (once I get my Jelco that is)!"

Konstantin from Russia contacted me via this website to make him a heavy 150 gram counterweight.

He chose stainless steel with a hairline finish. The arm is very nice and has a massive 20mm diameter counter weight stub. 

The picture shows it mounted on the arm.

The feed back I received:

"Hello, I received the package and I am fully satisfied. The extra grub screw you supplied for other fitting also appreciated. Thanks! " 

David from New Jersey USA contacted me about making a bespoke counterweight for his Denon Turntable.

This one had a particular size arm stub of 21.1mm and a close tolerance fit was required

Here is the feedback I received from him

"I contacted Steve to create a custom counterweight for my Denon DP-59L.  We had multiple conversations to make sure all the specifications were right.  Steve sent me pictures of his work along the way.  Shipping was quick and inexpensive.  The counterweight is PERFECT"

Andy from Kent required a Vitavox threaded horn adapter ferule to match an existing one he had

Andy wanted imperial treaded studs. Only metric are available from other suppliers.

I received feedback from him about the item:

"Dear Steve I have been playing around with the ferrule for some time and I am delighted, it is exactly what wanted; Identical to the other ferrule in every respect. Thank you for the quality of the product, it is much appreciated Kind regards Andy"

Here's feedback from a customer in singapore (I made a bespoke polished stainless steel arm life holder and rest, and an extra heavy counterweight for the arm).

"Steve, Just a brief “thank you” note. I’ve been listening to the ATP-12t with the extra weight & arm rest/lift and am very happy. I’m using Miyajima Premium Be mono cartridge in a heavy Fidelity Research FR-S/3 headshell and the combinations requires the extra weight. Mono records sound great with this. Thanks again!"

From another customer in Singapore

​"Hi Steve:
Finally had time to install the armboard.
Fits perfectly.  Attached are some pics.
Thanks again for your wonderful product and service."