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INDUSTRY
AWARDS and OTHER HONORS
 BUYER'S
GUIDE '09
Proscenium
Black Diamond Turntable and Tonearm
"For
a decade-and-a-half, Lloyd Walker and his partner Fred Law have been
building and improving the best turntable that (in JV's opinion) money can
buy... a work of audio art that not only looks fantastic but sounds
fantastic too. There simply isn't an area of weakness in the Walker's
sonic portfolio; it does it all - timbre, texture, dynamics, bass,
resolution, soundstaging, imaging, air, bloom, transparency to source, you
name it - better than anything else, analog or digital...the Walker Black
Diamond is one of the small handful of products that you will never hanker
to "upgrade", because (unless Walker and Law come up with
something new) there is currently nothing better to upgrade
to."
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March/April
2009
A
Perfect Platter - "...vinyl...is hot again...the
Proscenium Black Diamond turntable.... (is) a work of industrial
art..."
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Walker
Audio's founder Lloyd Walker was quoted in the New York Times in an
article titled "You Say You Want a Revolution (At 33 1/3) about music
lovers rediscovering the joys of vinyl. As a counterpoint to
information about lower end turntables, Lloyd was interviewed about our
turntable and high-end turntables in general, he says,
"Our turntable (is) far from being the most expensive,” said Lloyd Walker of
Walker Audio in Audubon, Pa., who handcrafts the company’s Proscenium
Black Diamond turntable. “They go up to a quarter of a million.”
The article continues:
Mr. Walker said, you get 250
pounds of turntable with a platter and tone arm that float on a nearly
frictionless cushion of air. And Mr. Walker comes to your listening room
to tweak every setting for optimum performance. “Setup is extremely
important,” he said. Click web
link to see the entire article.
Note:
Turntable price subject to change.
Special thank you to Micah Warren
at Fever Pitch Media Group for his help. www.feverpitchmedia.com
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Editor's
Choice 2008
"Gorgeous
in tone color, extraordinary in resolution, superb on bass, and
nonpareil on soundstaging, it is JV's long-standing reference.
Buyer's
Guide 2008
"There simply isn't an area of weakness in the Walker's
sonic portfolio; it does it all - timbre, texture, dynamics, bass,
resolution, soundstaging, imaging, air, bloom, transparency to source, you
name it - better than anything else, analog or digital..."
The
Higher End:
2007
Robinson's
Brutus Awards
Proscenium
Black Diamond Turntable
"There
were no attempts to de-throne the Walker PBD system from the top o' my
turntable heap this year....We'll see is anyone is courageous enough to
take up the challenge in 2008."
PFO
Issue 34, Nov./Dec. 2007 web
link
7
2008
TAS Short List: Turntables $20K+
Proscenium
Black Diamond
"...state
of the art in analog playback."
2007
Editor's
Choice AWARDS
and
Golden Ear
Proscenium
Black Diamond
 Also
2007 TAS Golden Ear Award
"...a
work of audio art...looks fantastic...sound fantastic, too" JV
Prologue
Equipment Rack
"...beautifully
made..."
Prologue
Rack also received:
TAS
Editor's
Choice Award 2004,
2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
PFO
Brutus
Award 2005
"...together
with the amp stands "impart
a sense of tight, clean, quick response...I wouldn't want to
listen...with out these stands..."
Shown
above in Jabota wood and at right in Maple.
|
Absolutely
the very best vinyl playback system
I've ever
heard, without qualification..."
I
doubt that there is a better turntable
on the planet."
David
W. Robinson, Editor-in-chief, PFO
See
a photo essay of Proscenium turntable installation and setup PFOIssue35
See
videocast of Lloyd Walker commenting on Proscenium turntable in PFO
Issue 38
Windows
Media Player Hi-Res
Lo-Res
Real Media Player Hi-Res
Lo-Res
David
Robinson 
Editor-in-chief
of Positive Feedback Online
with
his Walker turntable system featuring the
Proscenium Black Diamond Turntable with Reference Motor Controller, Reference
Phono Amp,
Click
photo for larger view
Prologue
Equipment Rack, Prologue
Top Shelf, plus much more!
After
reviewing the Walker Black Diamond Turntable, it was no contest between
keeping his Porsche or "the very best vinyl playback system (he'd)
ever heard ..." for this reviewer and audiophile. Above, David stands beside his Walker turntable system holding the
license plate of his Porsche 928 GT. The sports car is shown in the
insert. He says, "Selling my car was the price I paid
for my "pearl of great price" turntable!" |
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MORE
AWARDS and OTHER HONORS
2007
Twelve
Analog Components That Shook the Audio World
The Absolute Sound
June/July
2007
"Over the
years I've been privileged to hear any number of great record players,
but none better than the Walker Black Diamond. Designed (with infinite
patience) as a system, using principles that are well-established and
parts that have been tested and re-tested (right down to the screws and
nuts), it is a contemporary masterpiece that isn't so much an influence
on other designs as it is a culmination of other design
influence." J. Valin, Executive Editor, TAS
2006
Analog
Product Of The Year
THE
ABSOLUTE SOUND Dec.
2006
Editor's
Choice Award
The
Absolute Sound
"...now
with Walker's new and amazingly improved tonearm, the best source
component JV has tested thus far has taken a significant leap forward in
overall sound...JV's reference."
Brutus
Award
Positive
Feedback Online
"...astonishing.
Transparency! Lightening-like responsiveness
to
dynamics! A noise floor that vanishes to nothingness! Richness!...
truly
supreme in my book...This is the best of the best. Period."
2005
Editor's
Choice Award
The
Absolute Sound
“...a
contemporary work of art that not only sounds fantastic but looks
fantastic too...a snap to adjust and use, the Walker brings out the best
in any LP....The best source component JV has heard – and the most
reliable. In four years of daily play, the Walker has had exactly zero
problems. None, nada, zip. All is does is make music.”
Brutus
Award
Positive
Feedback Online
“...amazing...in
tandem with the rest of the
Walker Audio Proscenium system, this is the
finest
LP playback I've known."
RMAF
Show Report
2005
POSITIVE
FEEDBACK ONLINE ISSUE 21
The sound in the room was great and got better
as the show went on. I would pick the Walker (room) as the best
turntable-based sound of the show, bar none. I went back time and again,
whenever I needed a breath of fresh air!"
http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue21/rmafdr.htm
CES
Show Report 2005
POSITIVE
FEEDBACK ONLINE ISSUE 18
Best Of Show
- CES/T.H.E.
Show 2005: A Photo Essay, Day Three
"In
the category of stereo sound reproduction, the Walker Audio Proscenium turntable
as a source sets a standard for what's possible in LP reproduction.
....I think that it illustrates ...the importance of getting the
source right.
If
you disagree - listen to the Proscenium." David W. Robinson http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue18/ces05dr3c.htm
The
Absolute Sound Issue 153
“...there
wasn’t a better sounding turntable at this CES than the Walker
Proscenium Gold...it didn’t take long to hear that this turntable’s
solidity, detail, dynamic range and nuance, and sheer sense of musical
immediacy were a step above all others.” Wayne
Garcia, Editor
“...the
turntable and tone arm are simply incomparable, offering solidity,
color, dynamics and detail that no other ‘table at the show could
quite match...one of the four best sounds at CES 2005.”
Jonathan
Valin, Associate Editor
TAS
Recommended Components
June/July
2003
“Some readers will recognize this
ultra-expensive setup as “my” reference system…As for the front end,
I’ve written at length about Lloyd Walker’s fabulous Proscenium Gold
Signature turntable/tonearm. It is the best source component I’ve heard
in my home – and not by a little bit…” JV
2004
Brutus
Award
Positive
Feedback Online
"...vinyl
playback at a stratospheric level..."
Editor's
Choice Award
The
Absolute Sound
CES
Show Report
Bound
for Sound
"...the sound was
outstanding..."
2003
Golden
Ear Award
Recommended
Component
The
Absolute Sound
2002
Product
of the Year (Analog
Source)
Golden
Ear Award
Editor's
Choice
Recommended
System
Recommended
Components
The
Absolute Sound
CES
Show Report
Enjoy
The Music.com "...best
I've ever heard..."
Jimmy Awards
Soundstage!
|
PRODUCT
REVIEWS
The
Absolute Sound - December 2006
Analog
Shootout Review by Jonathan Valin
Kuzma
vs Walker
The
Title Bout in Analog Playback
"...the
final call isn't that close...not something you need 'golden ears' to
hear...(With the Walker) The space between the violin and piano...grows
much larger, the stage 'walls' seem to move considerably farther back and
farther apart and the instruments themselves sound bigger, as if some of
that same air has been pumped into them, blowing them up and filling them
out more fully in three dimensions. As a result, you suddenly realize that
this is a live recording, made in front of a real audience in a real
space... Then there are the changes in the timbres and dynamics of the
instruments....The Kuzma's slight overall darkness vanishes, replaced by
(the Walker's) neutrality that simply sound 'right'...its
fundamentals and overtones are considerably more realistic...it has more
of the color, authority and solidity of an actual grand piano from bottom
to top...
...through
the Walker both instruments sound less like superb two-dimensional
reproductions, and more like living, breathing, three-dimensional
semblances of the real things...
What
the Walker's bloom, space, size, air, neutrality, solidity, dimensionality
and dynamic authority buy you, musically, in Quasi una sonata, is
not just more lifelike timbers, but a keener sense of how each
instrument's timbre both separates it from and, on occasion, joins it to
the other instruments...
Most
of all, what you get with the Walker - and what sets it apart from any
other source component I've auditioned - is a "fool-you" sense
that you're hearing actual instruments there in the room with you...the
Walker Proscenium Black Diamond comes closer to sounding
"real" more often then any other source I've heard in my
system. (Just for the record, the Kuzma comes in second.)...
...if
the "gestalt" of a live concert or recital - the lifelike
presence of instruments, their colors, their dynamics, and the space
they play in - in what fidelity means (and I believe that it is), then
the Walker wins handily...
...it
is fuller and more realistic in tone color; bigger, bloomier, airier,
and more three-dimensional in imaging; wider, deeper, more layered in
soundstaging; and a bit more authoritative dynamically. If the Kuzma
gets the small parts closer to right, the Walker gets the wholes closer
to right...
...if
you have the dough, are married to LPs and are into symphonic or folk or
chamber or jazz you simply can't find a better source component for any
amount of money. Sonically, the Kuzma may come a bit closer to the best
hi-fi, but the Walker comes closer to the absolute sound.
Positive
Feedback Online Issue 23 January 2006 by
David Robinson web
link
"..absolutely
the very best vinyl playback system
I've
ever heard, without qualification. I doubt that there is a better
turntable on the planet...Walker Audio has taken
the entire chain of LP audio playback from the groove/stylus outputs to
the speaker inputs and optimized it for their vision of what LP playback
can be. It's very rare to see this level of dedication to getting every
last percentage point of performance from LP playback - but that's what
Walker Audio is all about..."
Positive
Feedback Online Issue 17 January 2005
by
Albert Porter web
link
"I
expected an upgrade (from my other table), but this was an upgrade
beyond anything I have ever experienced. I now had a new standard in
silence. This is blacker than the Well Tempered, blacker than the Basis,
even blacker than the Walker's custom black finish. This is a blackness
BEHIND the music, deeper and darker than the black of digital, a fluid
stream of music from "nothing" I never thought possible from
analog.
Blackness
is important, but once you're over the shock, the absolute speed
accuracy and a sense of limitless power to spin through the most complex
passages still causes one to stand in awe of this product. There is no
compression of dynamic range, no change in timbre and the soundstage
remains the same depth and height, regardless of the complexity of the
music. This is a remarkable accomplishment, and until I experienced it,
did not know how much of a compromise everything before it had been.......the
ultimate turntable has evolved and has proven that analog was the right
choice. The Walker Proscenium is a source so superb in my estimation
that it finally satisfied a quest that began when I was teenage boy,
wishing for perfection in LP playback and hoping my library would still
be state of the art when I was a grown man. And,
you know—it is."
SixMoons.com
October 2004
by
Mike Malinowski web
link
"The
system is dead quiet and music literally rises from a jet-black
background. There are times that one could forget listening to vinyl
because it's that quiet. Not that the Walker sounds the least bit
digital; but depending on the record, one obtains a similar level of
superior noise floor and perceived S/N ratio. Dynamics are not just
good, they are outstanding. I've owned this system for three years now
and I am still startled at times by this dynamic explosiveness on the
right record.
The table's soundstaging ability is its most outstanding
achievement in my book. I'm a sucker for great soundstaging and the
Walker has it in spades. Sheer size of width and depth just blows away
my VPI, which was no slouch in this area. The Walker table also has the
extraordinary ability to distinguish between the sounds of every
recording. This resolving power to dig deeply into the grooves allows
you to hear characteristics of not just the music but the recording process
as well. Whatever is on the record is and however it was put there is
delivered with an honesty that's seemingly devoid of euphonic
colorations. The table delivers the subtle nuance of a string quartet
Adagio to the dynamic power of a full orchestra con fuoco or the
raw energy of Rock'n'Roll. Prior to the Walker, as passages became
complex and louder, the sound became compressed and congested.
Continuous definition became lost during complex crescendos at times.
Visitors who've heard my system with the Walker -- and regardless
of associated electronics and speakers -- are almost universally
stunned, often sitting in silence well after the music has stopped. The
musical image is presented with a suchness that at times still stuns
me...
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MORE
REVIEWS
Bound
For Sound #155 February 2004
by
Marty DeWulf about the CES SHOW
"In
the only room that I know of, and out of the more than 100 rooms
having audio gear Las Vegas wide, Lloyd Walker was digital free. The
sole source in his room was a Walker Proscenium Gold Signature
turntable...the sound was outstanding...hey! when it's good I say
so...Lloyd played needle discs all day and his room probably
represented my longest audition of the show. I sat through an entire
side of Scheherazade without so much as moving a nose hair; it was
that enchanting."
The
Absolute Sound - Dec. 2003/January 2004 Review
by Jonathan Valin
"This is a record player that will not only define the limits of a recording but
the limits of your entire stereo system...the
Walker functions flawlessly and transparently. With the exception of
occasionally emptying a plastic bottle (housed in the box that holds the
compressor) of oily condensate and a swipe or two with a Swiffer to remove dust
from the spindle, I've had to do zero maintenance to keep it spinning along
happily, making the best sound I've heard from vinyl records...
...I
could fill the rest of this magazine with examples of what the Walker Proscenium
Gold Signature playback system does better than any other record player I know.
It is lower in noise, better at tracing and tracking, more detailed, more
exquisitely nuanced in timbre and dynamics, more powerful in the bass and
midbass (without sacrificing pitch-definition or clarity of inner line), more
extended at the top and bottom, more transparent, wider, deeper, taller, and
more "continuous" at soundstaging, better at layering and imaging,
more purely revealing of microphone set-ups and more downright musical than any
analog source I've tried in my home (except for reel-to-reel tapes)
....I
wouldn't know how to criticize a device that is this much better than any other
of its kind I've owned or played with - one that is supremely detailed without
sounding analytical, warm and musical without sounding clotted or colored, airy
and extended in the treble without either softness or etching, deep and defined
in the bass without bloat or leanness. I've
heard some few skeptics question the Walker's bottommost octaves-not full
enough, they say. (Of course, they say this about the bottom octaves of any
linear-tracking arm.) To which, I say, "You're friggin' nuts!" The
thing reproduces low-pitched instruments just as naturally as it does higher
pitched ones - and just as inimitably.
...a masterpiece."
The
Absolute Sound - October/November 2002
Class
I Turntable
This
beautifully made air-footed, air-bearing turntable with integral air-bearing,
straight-line tracking arm produces the most realistic sound JV has yet heard
from vinyl records. Like a sonic vacuum cleaner, the Gold Signature seems to
suck up every little detail from the grooves, and yet is never cool or
analytical sounding. On the contrary, it is warm, sweet, and musical, with
sensational wall-to-wall-to-wall soundstaging, state-of-the-art transparency,
and deep, tuneful bass. A snap to set up, use, and maintain, too. – JV (HP’s
Workshop Issues 125,132)
Absolute
Sound June/July 2002
Recommended
System by Jonathan Valin
About
the turntable, he says, " at $24,000, (it) has to be the single
"best buy" in the realm of ultra-expensive, ultra-high
end components...among the very best analog front ends you can
purchase (and this at less than a third of the cost of its
only genuine competition, the legendary Rockport Sirius III)...bringing
records closer to the full, sweet, grainless,
"continuous" sound of master-tapes. The
Walker is superb in every regard..."
Soundstage!
July 2002
The
2002 Mid-Season Jimmy Awards by
Jim Saxton web
link
"the
Walker
Audio Proscenium Gold Reference Analog Playback System is the only entry
of which I am confident in this category...the Walker turntable and
accouterments weigh even more than the GamuT amplifier while looking
sleeker. To a wealthy vinyl devotee, the Walker Gold Reference may make
sense... Pass the Jimmy to Mr. Walker."
Enjoy
The Music.com January 2002
Consumer
Electronic Show Report by Clark Johnsen
"Walker
Audio manufactures the Turntable Gorgeoso, called the Walker Proscenium, best
I've ever heard..Amplification is provided by Viva and the sound surpasses
even that in Avantgarde's own room."
Enjoy
the Music.com August 2001 web
link
Audiolics
Anonymous Chapter 24 by Bill Gaw
"One
of the big strokes of luck in my life was finding this beauty (the Proscenium
turntable) and in turn, Lloyd Walker, one of the true geniuses in high end
audio...From day one I was ecstatic with its sound. I have owned a Gem,
Sota, AR, and Basis, and I have listened extensively to VIP, Clearaudio, Simon
Yorke and Sirius turntables in other systems, and this one was top notch right
from the start. Absolute Sound for a couple of issues was recommending it as
their best table until they formed and alliance with Clearaudio...What does the
Proscenium sound like? With my Alan Wright phono stages, and Kondo IO cartridge
and tonearm-interconnect wire, just like master tapes."
The
Absolute Sound Issue 125 Aug./Sept. 2000 "HP's Workshop" by Harry
Pearson
"It projects a silken, near spookily dark, velvet background against which
each - and I mean each - sound is clearly articulated and delineated, with a
breathtaking degree of dimensionality."
Bound
For Sound: Hi-Fi 99 Report
by
Martin G. DeWulf
"...the best sound at this show was in the Merlin/Joule Electra/Walker/JPS
room...Bobby, Lloyd, Jud and Joe put on a show...Before going to Chicago, a
reader called to ask what I knew about the Walker turntable. 'Not much' I
responded. Boys, now I know something about the Walker table, and baby, it's
something to behold. If you are a needle-disc addict, $17,000 couldn't be better
spent... I heard a definite propensity to lift the music up, over and above the
mechanical and electrical medium used to reproduce it. .. A super system."
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