Three decades ago, I had a boss who insisted I drive a Mercedes-Benz as a company car. Tough gig, you might be thinking, but there was solid reasoning behind this extravagance: He wanted the people representing his company to look successful, so it was three-pointed star cars for all, at a time when a Mercedes was more exclusive than it is today.
I only worked at that company for a couple of years, but my passion for Mercedes never faded. In the decades since, I have owned more Swabian cars than I can count using fingers and toes. So, when a box shows up on my doorstep and the packing slip includes words like Benz, AMG, SLR, and Gullwing, I assume it’s a box full of car goodies.
This AMG, though, is not car related. The letters stand for Analog Manufaktur Germany, a tortured bilingual moniker that tells you a little about the company, which has no relationship to Mercedes or its AMG subsidiary, which soups up certain Mercedes models.
The Giro MK II
Founded in 2011 in Bavaria a few miles southeast of Nuremberg, this AMG makes turntables and tonearms. Since its founding, its product line has remained resolutely focused, with just a handful of models. The Giro MK II is their most affordable; the Viella and its beefed-up sibling, the Viella Forte, sit above it. The tonearm lineup is similarly simple, with 9″ and 12″ arms available standard (9W2 and 12J2) and as upgraded “Turbo” versions (9WT and 12JT). (Rounding out the tonearm lineup is the 9W1, a slightly longer 9″ arm that’s compatible with Rega’s mounting geometry and isn’t normally paired with AMG’s own turntables.)
First launched in 2015—Herb Reichert reviewed it in his Gramophone Dreams column in 2017—Giro has now received its first major revision, with upgrades significant enough to make it worthy of MK II status. The most visible upgrade is a thicker, 40% heavier version of AMG’s POM (aka Delrin, aka polyoxymethylene) platter, which gives it a substantial increase in mass, rotational inertia, and—hence—improved speed stability. A side benefit of the thicker platter is that to achieve the correct mounting height, the arm sits higher above the plinth, so AMG has added a raised armpod with switchable mounting plates instead of mounting the arm directly to the plinth as with the MK I. If you decide to change to a different tonearm at some point, you should be able to get a predrilled mounting plate to match.
Under the skin are further MK II refinements including a smaller belt pulley for the Switzerland-made DC motor, which allows it to run in its optimum speed range, reducing noise. New damping material around the motor is said to further suppress spurious vibrations. As with the original Giro, an outboard linear power supply ($1200) is available as an optional upgrade, although for this review I used the standard, inline switch-mode supply.
Finally, the main platter bearing has been redesigned, with a new, two-tier coupling area between the platter and subplatter, which AMG says lowers noisefloor and further improves speed stability.
Despite the thicker platter, the Giro remains one of the most compact and elegant high-end turntables available; its 13″ × 17″ footprint fits in narrow spaces where most high-performance turntables just won’t go.
The plinth is a second disc with dimensions similar to those of the platter, the platter bearing offset to one side of the plinth. When put together, the two discs have an attractive sculptural quality that reminds me of the two intersecting observation towers of the New York State Pavilion at the 1964 World’s Fair, which are still standing in Queens, New York.
Three adjustable spiked feet support the structure, one under the main bearing, two on the right side of the plinth under the tonearm area. This arrangement allows you to level the turntable in all directions while providing vibration grounds under the main bearing and near the base of the arm. Small holes in the top of the plinth allow access to the spikes from above, making leveling a snap.
The 9W2 tonearm is an old, familiar friend; Art Dudley covered it in 2014 in Listening #142; in 2017, Herb Reichert covered it in the aforementioned review of the first AMG Giro, in Gramophone Dreams #18. I have seen the AMG arms described as “jewel-like,” but to me, “watch-like” is more accurate. The AMG arms aren’t the slightest bit flashy; on the contrary, they are restrained and elegant, with a minimum of added appendages and extra doodads. Their precision is watchmaker level; everything fits snugly and adjusts with utmost smoothness. This impression of precision continues when you handle the arm: All controls operate smoothly, making tiny adjustments easy and repeatable. All the essential adjustments are there, including azimuth and arm height. Nothing is calibrated, though, so you’ll need to use external tools to measure and adjust quantitatively.
Tonearm cabling and cabling in general can be contentious, so AMG lets the customer decide how deep to go down that rabbit hole. The arm’s wiring terminates at a DIN socket at its base, and the Giro doesn’t come with a standard tonearm cable; rather, AMG offers four levels made for them by Cardas: the Basic ($300), Standard ($600), Reference ($1500), and Turbo ($2250)—or you can choose your own. For this review, I was sent the Reference cable.
To complete the package, AMG importer Sierra Sound shipped the review sample with an SLR Gullwing cartridge ($3500) from Benz Micro, another well-known brand they distribute that coincidentally keeps the Mercedes-based naming scheme going. There’s no real connection, though: “Benz” refers to Benz Micro’s founder, watchmaker Ernst Benz, and the L and R in “SLR” stand for “low output “and “ruby,” for the ruby plate used in the generator. The SLR Gullwing is a hot-rodded version of Benz’s flagship LP-S cartridge but without the fancy ebony body, which leaves the nude cartridge exposed. I’m quite familiar with the Benz, having installed and listened to several over the years, which makes it a good choice for this review: I know what it sounds like, so I can keep my focus on the ‘arm and ‘table. And yes, it helps to keep that Mercedes naming theme going.
Setup
Turntables don’t get much easier to set up than the Giro MK II, which comes mostly preassembled. The same cannot be said about the 9W2 tonearm, which has all the normally expected adjustments but, as previously noted, no calibrations to tell you where things are set.
The Giro’s main platter bearing is factory sealed and comes oiled and ready to use, so all you need to do to set up the Giro is position the plinth on your supporting surface and level it from above, using the supplied Allen wrench to adjust the two spiked feet. Then, while holding the belt against the flange on the underside of the platter with one hand, carefully lower the platter onto the subplatter while looping the belt around the motor spindle. (That part is slightly tricky but a heck of a lot easier than on Giro’s bigger, heavier brother, the Viella.)
Once everything is in place, turn the platter by hand for a rotation or two to ensure the belt is seated, and put the record clamp washer over the spindle, tapered side up. This small washer lifts the center of the record off the platter slightly so that when you screw down the record clamp, the record is pressed against the platter’s surface, slightly convex. One nice detail on the Giro is that the record spindle is not just an extension of the main bearing shaft. By using separate parts coupled to the inner platter, they break the direct mechanical link, isolating the record a little bit more from any noise from the bearing.
Switch the motor on and select 33 1/3 or 45rpm with two round, touch-sensitive switches on the top of the plinth. A ring around each switch lights green when the corresponding speed is selected then changes to red when switched off; you can use the same switches to fine-tune each speed: No speed indicator is included, so you will need your own strobe disc or other tool for measuring and adjusting rotation speed.
NEXT: Page 2 »
COMPANY INFO
AMG (Analog Manufaktur Germany)
US distributor: Sierra Sound
analog-manufaktur-germany.de
ARTICLE CONTENTS
Page 1
Page 2
Specifications
Associated Equipment
Click Here: Leggings