Shop Visit
What does “Wow and Flutter” mean?
Lessons learned at MoFI Electronics
Shop visit! Ann Arbor’s @mofi_electronics showed me how they keep Wow and Flutter at minimum before shipping their handmade turntables around the world. But wait…we want MAX Wow and Flutter, don’t we!?! Not when we’re talking about analog audio. Wow and Flutter, a source of distortion, is a term used for measuring changes in speed during playback. “Wow” is a slow change in speed and “Flutter” measures a rapid change. The first picture shows the tooling used to measure Wow and Flutter at MoFi. The experienced craftsmen at MoFi were very patient explaining this concept to me! It was so cool visiting and knowing such high-end products are being manufactured in Ann Arbor. The folks there are a real collegial group. Management doesn’t bark orders, they work as a team making moral, quality and production blatantly high. That’s how you do it!
Shop Visit #2
Is your “Wow and Flutter” out of whack?
Muse Audio will fix that!
As we learned with our first Shop Visit, “Wow and Flutter” is not only a great name for a coffee and tea brand, but our namesake was pulled directly from a unique term used for analog audio. Today we visit Jeff Hall’s, Muse Audio, off Jackson Rd. in Ann Arbor. He and his team restore, repair and upgrade vintage equipment for local customers and enthusiasts all around the Midwest who have found him without the lure of advertising. There is just a web page and word-of-mouth. The waitlist for a repair is now four months after a unit has been assessed. And that’s an improvement. My Marantz was in for six months in 2022. Muse gave my failing receiver “at least 10 more years” of quality life after the level 1 “functional repair” I chose. Hall, who has been an electrical engineer for 30 years is the technical rock at Muse. He’s responsible for hiring and training new technicians when he can’t find retired, seasoned engineers. Hall is often in hiring mode. It’s hard to find young talent interested in this type of hands-on technical work.
The Muse gang is incredibly friendly and have bedside manners many doctors would envy…it’s not easy telling the owner of a McIntosh pre-amp that it needs a full semiconductor transplant. They give you the straight news and then options.
It’s a lot of fun being able to visit another small business that works with so much Wow and Flutter! Take a break from the typical brick-and-mortar this season and press some buttons at Muse Audio! No… no, don’t do that, just look and ask for them to demo anything you would like :)
5040 Jackson Rd
Suite #3
Ann Arbor, MI 48103
Shop Visit #3
Ferndale’s Valentine Distillery Co.
a fortunate source for our barrel aged coffee
This time it’s more of a “Large Facilities” Visit. We are very lucky to source oak barrels for our barrel aged coffee from a special distillery in Ferndale MI. Rafino Valentine started Valentine Distilling Co. in 2007 to produce craft spirits that would out-flavor mass-produced products and to show the U.S. quality manufacturing still exists in Detroit. Valentine is a consummate distiller who has proven, like select coffee roasters, brewers, vintners and electronics manufacturers (Shop Visit #1) small operations can be top tier producers and compete globally.
Valentine’s whole line of spirits have won MANY awards from around the world. What do you think about this one: “World’s Best Vodka”-OVERALL-World Drinks Award- London 2016. How does a distillery in the Midwest do that? Rafino didn’t tell me exactly how. I understand :) Click here to see a list of his awards.
Cheers to Valentine Distilling for accomplishing what he set out to do AND making newly-emptied, fragrant barrels available to a small outfit with a questionable brand name!
You can find Valentine at almost any liquor store, Meijer, Kroger and Total Wine and More
Me (Matt) Left and Valentine’s main assistant, Ian