To purchase in the U.S, contact us directly. Elsewhere, see our international dealers list. If there is no dealer in your area, please contact us directly. Awards (includes Gold Signature, Black Diamond & Black Diamond II awards) The Absolute Sound Turntable Of The Year 2002, 2006, 2010 The Absolute Sound Golden Ear Award 2002, 2003 The Absolute Sound Editor’s Choice Award 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 The Absolute Sound Recommended Components 2003 Positive Feedback Online Brutus Award 2005, 2006, 2007, Positive Feedback Online Oasis Award 2010
Reviews/Comments The Absolute Sound April/May 2010 Cover and Review ...the Walker's excellence isn't just at matter of the precision, durability, intuitive simplicity of use, and repeatability of settings...This is a record player that exemplifies a certain take on the reproduction of music via LPs - what might be called the 'transparency-to--the mastering-lathe' approach." “The Walker's soundstaging and imaging have always been nonpareil...the Proscenium has not been equaled by any other 'table/arm I've had..."
"The latest Walker has taken the lead in low-level detail, dynamics and transparency..." "The Walker has been my analog-source reference ever since I started writing for TAS again...it will remain my reference for the foreseeable future. I cannot recommend it highly enough. For LP lovers, for devotees of the absolute sound, it is the very stuff that dreams are made of." J. Valin, Exec. Editor April/May 2010 The Absolute Sound Buyer’s Guide 2009 "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." 
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 here to see the entire article. 2008 See PFO Photo Essay of turntable installation and set up: Positive-Feedback.com/Issue35 See videocast of Lloyd Walker commenting on Proscenium turntable in PFO Issue 38 Windows Media Player Hi-Res Lo-Res 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 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. |
