cnx_vinyl/docs/suppliers/vendor-landscape.md

Vendor Landscape

Research on candidate vendors for the production chain beyond the Newbilt pressing line (from vendor sites and trade press; capabilities are claims until quotes and visits verify them). Pricing is unpublished almost across the board, the Sillitoe lathe being the one exception: everything else is a quote-on-request conversation.

The tabular needs-and-suppliers map lives in equipment-suppliers.md; this document is the narrative per vendor.

Mastering and cutting: Agnew Analog (Greece)

Agnew Analog Reference Instruments builds the Type 612 disk mastering lathe (unveiled 2023, billed in the trade press as the first all-new lacquer cutting lathe since the mid-1960s) and the companion Type 602 stereo cutter head, sold turnkey or as components. Bespoke, low-volume manufacturing by J. I. Agnew, so expect long build times. The lathe is only the platform: a working cutting room additionally needs cutter amplifiers, a mastering console, a preview/pitch-automation solution, vacuum and swarf handling, plus lacquer blanks and styli as consumables.

Mastering and cutting: Sillitoe Audio Technology (Australia)

Sillitoe Audio Technology builds the Sillitoe Disk Mastering System (SDMS), which is a complete cutting system rather than a bare lathe. Per the vendor's system page and its 2021/2022 hardware reference manual:

• Turntable: direct drive, 16/22/33/45 rpm, 355 mm vacuum platter adjustable for 7", 10", 12" and 14" disks
• Cutterhead: MMFB Mk3E moving-magnet feedback stereo head, helium cooling capability, stylus heating
• Master Control (19" 2RU): USB DAC (44.1 to 384 kHz), closed-loop analog cutting preamp, 350 W per channel cutting amplifier, VU/PPM metering, phono stage for playback checks
• Space / Time Control (19" 2RU): turntable, pitch, depth and head drop/lift, each switchable between manual and software control
• QC: groove inspection microscope at 200x and 40x with a measuring graticule (5 µm divisions) and a C-mount for a camera; a 12" tonearm for test-cut playback
• Vacuum: one pump for platter hold-down and chip suction, chip jar included
• Half-speed cutting electronics are an upgrade, not in the standard system

What sets it apart is the software. Space / Time Control (STC), Windows and macOS, licensed only with an SDMS, computes a "Virtual Groove" from the audio before anything is cut, analyses it, and drives pitch, depth and head lift automatically during the cut. The vendor's claim is 20 minutes at 94% disk capacity at +5 dB (NAB) with no capacity tests or dry runs. Trade press describes it as the first cutting lathe with integrated software automation. Timeless Mastering in New York (founded by a former Sterling Sound cutting engineer) cuts on serial number 6, which is also a fair measure of how small the install base is.

Published price: USD 125,000 for the standard system, excluding tax and shipping, built to order (vendor order page, October 2026). Sales run through a contract the buyer signs first and Sillitoe countersigns at its discretion. It is the only lathe in this landscape with a public price.

Points for the decision:

• It closes most of the gap the Agnew route leaves open. Cutting amplifier, preview and pitch automation, vacuum and microscope are in the box. Still needed: the mastering console and chain, monitoring, room treatment, lacquer blanks and styli (Neumann SX-type styli per the manual).
• It is a closed system. The cutterhead is excluded from warranty, has no user-serviceable parts and works only with Sillitoe's own amplifier; most subsystems in the hardware manual are marked "factory calibrated" with instructions to leave the screws alone. Service depends on one small company, so spares (a second cutterhead) and support terms belong in the quote. Australia is one to four hours ahead of Thailand, which helps remote support.
• It produces data, which the Agnew route does not. STC exports a master cue sheet (artist, title, label, catalogue number, side, matrix number, engineer, groove diameter per track) as HTML or PDF, exports the groove as an Open Groove file (an open-source virtual-groove format in development), keeps a stylus-hours counter, and stores each project with its audio and settings. The cutting session in the factory application can attach these files instead of relying on manual entry (see digital factory).
• Lacquer and DMM. The vendor's social posts say the newer suspension cuts both lacquer and DMM (direct metal mastering) on one lathe under software control. Unverified; worth asking, because a copper DMM master needs no silvering and is not on the one-to-three-day plating clock that a soft lacquer is.
• A used 2023 unit was advertised for resale in New York in August 2025 (lathetrolls.com classifieds), so second-hand units exist; a used purchase would need the vendor's transfer and support terms in writing.

Agnew or Sillitoe

	Agnew Analog Type 612	Sillitoe SDMS
Origin	Greece	Australia
Scope	Lathe and Type 602 head, turnkey or as components; amplifiers, automation and console sourced around it	Complete system: lathe, cutterhead, cutting amplifier, automation software, vacuum, microscope
Pitch and depth automation	External preview/automation solution needed	Integrated (Space / Time Control, Virtual Groove)
Price	Unpublished	USD 125,000 standard system, ex tax and shipping
Build	Bespoke, long build times	Built to order, contract at the vendor's discretion
Lock-in	Component route, to be confirmed	Head and amplifier only work together
Data out	None (station check-in only)	Cue sheet, Open Groove export, project files, stylus hours

Ask both for a quote and a cutting demonstration with CNX's own audio, and compare the whole room, not the lathe: amplifiers, automation, console, spares and service terms. At the Sillitoe list price the cutting room is a smaller decision than the 290k to 580k USD line in total investment assumed, which makes it, alongside galvanics, a candidate for moving earlier than Phase 5 in the roadmap.

Silvering and electroforming equipment: Plating Power / Digital Matrix (USA)

Plating Power is the vinyl brand of Digital Matrix Corporation (Farmingdale, NY), the dominant turnkey vendor for vinyl galvanics. Their line covers silvering (VLSS station), nickel pre-plate (VLPP), production electroforming (VLFP 2/4/6-cell system), and electro-clean/passivation (EC-1000), all built for clean-room use with fume extraction hookups. Two gaps matter for this project: they supply no closed-loop water treatment or metal recovery (a separate industrial water-treatment vendor must deliver the zero-discharge system; the zero-discharge plating room at Gotta Groove Records in Ohio, built around a wastewater evaporator, is the reference model), and no stamper punching/finishing equipment (see Sibert below). No Southeast Asia distributor; contact is via the US factory or their Japan/Korea distributors. Pheenix Alpha (below) now offers a competing line unit for unit; the datasheets and the comparison are in galvanics and stamper prep.

Stamper preparation: Sibert Instruments (UK)

Sibert Instruments (Hampshire, in this niche since the early 1970s) makes the machines that turn a raw electroformed nickel shell into a press-ready stamper: the VSP center punch, VSF back-finisher, and VSC coiner (trim and form in one pass). One-off capital equipment filling exactly the gap between the plating line and the presses. The 2021 technical specifications are in ../equipment/sibert/: all three run on single-phase power and 6 to 8 bar air, weigh 200, 250 and 600 kg, and list no data interface; centring on the punch is manual under ×100 optics. Figures, mould fit and the service model are in galvanics and stamper prep.

Stamper service, as a bridge: Stamper Discs (UK)

Stamper Discs (Sheffield, founded 2018, family-run) is a trade galvanics service: send lacquers or DMM masters, get back press-ready 1-step or 3-step stampers in 7"/10"/12", explicitly made to fit Viryl, Toolex, and Newbilt molds. They ship to 30+ countries and can broker lacquer cutting through European partners. Natural role for CNX Vinyl: stamper supplier while the in-house galvanics line is being built, then overflow capacity and a quality benchmark. Watch-outs: a small single-site operation, no documented Asia customers yet, and two international freight legs per job.

Fully automated presses and electroforming: Pheenix Alpha (Sweden)

Pheenix Alpha (Solna) is the direct successor of Toolex Alpha, founded in 2006 by former Toolex staff. Their AD12 is the continuation of the original 1977 fully automatic press: 24 to 26 second cycle (roughly 140 records per hour), one operator running up to four presses, 7"/10"/12" up to 200 g, about 3.25 m² per press. Each press has 25 kW installed electrical power and consumes per cycle roughly 1.2 kg of steam, 12.5 L of chilled water in a closed platen circuit (compatible with the zero-discharge goal), and compressed air. Deepgrooves in the Netherlands runs its AD12 steam from wood-fired biomass boilers, a working precedent for the renewable-steam question. Pheenix also offers the AD12 Manual, a semi-automatic press on the same platform aimed at splatter and short runs, which makes them a possible single-vendor alternative covering both halves of the 50/50 fleet; that option should be weighed against the Newbilt plan on price, spares, and support.

Pheenix also builds electroforming equipment: an automatic silvering unit (PASU), a four-position pre-plating unit (PPPU), a two-cell production plating unit (PDPU, up to 200 A per cell) and a passivation and cleaning bench (PMPB), the plating units PLC-controlled with network access (2024 flyers in ../equipment/pheenix-alpha/, summarised in galvanics and stamper prep). It calls itself the only manufacturer of both electroforming and pressing systems, which makes it a single-vendor candidate for the whole chain from lacquer to record, not only for the presses. The flyers give the company's address as Skepptuna, Märsta.