The company is the leading centre for glass science and research in the UK. In collaboration with Dr. Katrina Skerratt-Love, Andrew Broadhurst, and Martyn Marshall of GTS, a groundbreaking damping system was developed. This innovative system holds great potential for various applications in future Wilson Benesch product developments. … This design incorporates a variety of different materials and utilizes the principles of fractal science to achieve broadband damping. The careful arrangement of the materials and the specific geometry within the two-part design are made possible by pockets integrated into the chassis to house the damping materials. The initial results, listed below, clearly demonstrate the effectiveness of this design. These results highlight the significant impact of the FrACTal chassis on achieving superior damping characteristics in a system that requires no adjustment and remains effective indefinitely. … The main objective in developing the FrACTal chassis is to eliminate any potential excitation of the solid metal chassis by air vibrations.” To these explanations Wilson Benesch adds a number of examples of fractal geometries for energy dissipation in nature, of which only one will be mentioned here: The fractal geometry of a coastline converts the energy of the waves into heat and sound: an effective way of energy dissipation.

It should be clear by now how intensely Wilson Benesch dedicates itself to a single component, and also that it's impossible to present all of their research in this breadth here – however fascinating some areas might be. At least as interesting, however, is explaining how a company the size of Wilson Benesch finances the research underlying its products. The OMEGA Drive motor of the GMT® One system shall serve as an example: In 2019, the GMT consortium was founded to develop the OMEGA Motor Drive with a team including Dr. Faris Al Naemi, Dr. Jon Travis, and Professor Cockerham from Sheffield Hallam University, as well as CAAS Audio, with the help of £326,000 in public funding from Innovate UK. I'm not aware of any government funding available in this country for the realisation of hi-fi or high-end projects, but I am aware that Wilson Benesch managed to secure public funding right from the company's inception. This is likely due to the fact that the developments planned by Wilson Benesch are not variations of existing technology, but rather groundbreaking innovations.

But back to the OMEGA Drive: After several trials with other drive designs, Wilson Benesch decided to use a linear motor with 21 coils in the stator and neodymium-iron-boron magnets in the rotor. To manufacture the coils, Wilson Benesch invested in coil winding machines and hired a university graduate dedicated solely to this task. The OMEGA Motor Drive, a slotless synchronous motor, is designed to have negligible torque ripple and achieve high speed stability. According to the formula "force x diameter = torque," the desired high torque can be achieved through either high force or a large motor diameter. Wilson Benesch opted for a large diameter: At 456 millimetres, the OMEGA Drive motor is the largest ever used as a direct drive in a turntable. This exceptionally large diameter guarantees high torque with relatively low electromagnetic force, resulting in reduced torque ripple.