Turntables — J.Sikora STANDARD MAX LINE

The Standard MAX is a belt driven turntable from J.Sikora of Lublin, Poland, listed by the maker in its Standard MAX line alongside a Standard MAX White version and the Standard MAX Supreme. It is a heavy two motor design with a mass loaded platter, and it ships with an armboard, a record clamp, a glass mat and a power supply as standard. Its origin goes back to 2009, when company founder Janusz Sikora finished the design of his first turntable, which J.Sikora describes as the progenitor of the current Standard Max.

Key specs that matter

Total weight is 83 kg, and the platter alone accounts for 18 kg. Delrin and cast iron are joined in the platter, which spins on an inverted bearing. Two DC motors drive it through a rubber belt at 33 or 45 rpm. The deck measures 620 x 350 x 410 mm with silver and black as the listed colours. The Standard MAX White variant shares these figures and offers the platter in white or black.

Engineering and use context

The structure of the deck mixes aluminium, brass, copper, stainless steel and bronze. Both static and dynamic balancing are applied to the platter. Its bearing is built from steel and cemented carbides with zirconium, and J.Sikora lists its ball as ceramic. The motors take their supply from an external box, and the maker lists two supplies in its catalogue. The Basic Power Supply accepts 230 V or 115 V, delivers 24 V and measures 100 x 100 x 190 mm, while the Reference Power Supply has the same input and output voltages in a larger 170 x 180 x 320 mm case. Dual-armboard configurations are offered. For the anniversary Standard Max Supreme, J.Sikora replaced aluminium parts of the suspension with brass, used separators of steel, copper and solid brass plates at the base of the platter, fitted 1 cm stainless steel motor housings on 2 cm brass bases, and made the Reference supply the only option, with the first 15 sets numbered and a listed weight of 98 kg.

Pairing

J.Sikora offers the Standard MAX with its own KV9, KV12 VTA, KV Max 9 or CF9 tonearms, and with two arm positions two cartridges can stay mounted at the same time. Each arm needs its own connection to a phono stage, so a phono preamplifier with two inputs, or two separate phono stages, keeps both arms ready for use.

Alternatives

J.Sikora also builds the Standard, an 80 kg two motor turntable with an 18 kg Delrin and cast iron platter, one tonearm position plus an optional second, and a 620 x 350 x 400 mm footprint.