Christan Griego is a trombone player who went into business building trombone mouthpieces 23 years ago. He’d grown up listening to music and, at 16, worked in a stereo shop. Now, as owner of SOTA turntables, the Griego Mouthpiece still remains a staple product from his 13,000 square foot diversified productions warehouse factory that also produces a cornerstone of his lifelong passion, the turntable.
I had first met him at a turntable and speaker demo at a Chicago Audio Society meeting this past February (you can read about that HERE), and on July 9, 2024, I visited Griego at his SOTA turntable factory in Delavan, Wisconsin, a community of 8,490 in rural Walworth county, 22 minutes northwest of the popular resort destination, Lake Geneva, and an hour from Kenosha, WI where I work.
Downtown Delavan, WI (photo courtesy of wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons)
After I arrive, he scoops me up in his large-tired truck to drive down to the Ol’ Wisco Bar & Grill in downtown Delavan. I find him to be quite affable and insightful on a variety of topics ranging from audio to music, the economy, supply, and labor cost issues.
“My family is from Spain/Peru/ into New Mexico. We have the Griego Land Grant in New Mexico as heirs and my father didn’t know English until he went to school,” he says. “My grandma couldn’t read or write, but provided for five boys and two girls with her husband. Pretty crazy. Originally we may have been from Greece since they probably referred to them as “Griego” or the Greek. Makes sense to me, but I have no way of validating this.”
An avid bicyclist, he’s looking trim and hip in his black curly locks, glasses, black athletic and compression shorts, light grey running shoes, and black rock band T-shirt. He noshes responsibly on a Greek salad. I haven’t eaten a thing all day, so I indulge in an avacado cheeseburger — with a nod to healthier eating by going with sweet potato fries, instead of the regular ones that are nasty “starch bombs”, according to nutritionists.
“Boy, they sure pile on the cheese!” I quip as gooey cheddar drips from my sandwich.
“Welcome to Wisconsin, my friend!” he says with a laugh. Wisconsin, it turns out, has 1,290 licensed cheesemakers, which is more than any other state in the U.S. (https://ehlenbachscheese.com), producing 26 percent of domestic cheese — hence, the nickname, “Cheeseheads”, for Greenbay Packer football and Wisconsin sports fans, as a whole. (en.as.com)
But, I digress. Back at SOTA headquarters, Griego takes me on a tour of their expansive warehouse. Chock full of CNC lathes and other production machinery, it includes:
- A rotary engraving and diamond drag engraving CNC lathe
- Swiss screw machining for small parts that are “One and done”, limiting potential mistakes from too many hands in their production that also produces 10,000 stainless steel parts for farmer irrigation systems.
- DMG Mori Mill (the only machine without Fanuc code)
- A machine that outputs 1,500 trumpet braces in a day and a half
His diversified portfolio of products include elements of “essential” manufacturing, including transportation, food production parts, aerospace components, aircraft and sailboat parts. As such, they allow his SOTA factory to remain open in extreme events like COVID, when others are shut down.
From aluminum blocks, he machines turntable plinths.
SOTA uses locally sourced wood – usually cherry and walnut – some from 15 minutes down the road. People call with trees that they will sell to SOTA. In turn, the wood is milled, kiln-dried, and subjected to “an established process where they finish size, finger joint, and plane it,” Griego says.
In one section of the warehouse, they have a rack of trade-ins that they restore later. “We offer a lifetime trade-in policy,” says Griego.
In another long, multi-layered rack, there are rows of entry level Moonbeam turntable plinths, and on a separate level, rows of Comets (a level above the Moonbeams) that will be used to build turntables later.
SOTA Beginning
SOTA was started in Berkley, California in 1979 “when I was six,” Griego informs.
David Fletcher and Robert Becker were founding partners and they subsequently brought on Rod Herman as a minority partner “to complete the turntable’s package design and run the factory,” according to Don Lindich. (psaudio.com/blogs/copper) Eventually, Sota moved to the Midwest in Chicago and became SOTA Sales and Service, operated by Kirk and Donna Bodinet until 2018.
Griego bought SOTA in 2018 when the warehouse he’s currently using for the factory was half-empty (he rented the other half to the City Works department of the city of Delavan, Wisconsin). Prior to this, he manufactured Griego trombone mouthpieces in a friend’s 10’ x 10’ wood shop space that he rented with his original machine. Now, his factory warehouse is all of 13,000 square feet.
Chris Hible, CNC Shop Foreman, holds a freshly-milled mouthpiece from their shop
Materials Innovations
He’s proactive in his selection of materials. For example, his turntable chassis used to contain lead in them, but now they are lead-free. To make that possible, he now utilizes phenolic resin sub-chassis and modern aircraft grade aluminum and medical grade stainless steel.
Griego’s also experimenting with new materials and studying material science to see how he can improve the acoustic properties in their products.Some examples include:
- He has a new board for the Condor PSU that sends the drive signal to the motor and controls it with a tachometer port to run a feedback loop from the Road Runner Tachometer to the sensor board that reads a magnet on the outside bottom of the platter to the thousandths (i.e., 33.333 RPM).
- The SOTA Saphire employs a titanium tri-nitride coated shaft, which is very hard, with silicone-impregnated bushings (used in race cars, which is very soft).
- The Series 7 PSU for the SOTA Cosmos turntable uses one board for the Condor and Roadrunner (tachometer and PSU all-in-one unit on one circuit board between vacuum power supply which utilizes a linear power supply
- The SOTA Nova uses a 1” thick piano brace billet aluminum that’s 100 percent CNC-machined on all sides (by comparison, their Sapphire uses a ⅛” thick piano brace)
“In our Heritage Series, it’s all what’s on the inside that matters,” he says. As you increase the mass and rigidity, the bass gets cleaner and clarity goes up because you have more weight, he explains, “because it’s all about making sure no vibrations get into the signal path.”
“The cartridge is a microphone; the more sensitive it is, the harder it is to get rid of resonances,” he says. “It’s the equivalent of 720 to 4K, but for your ears.”
Enter the Pyxi Phono Preamplifier
“The phono stage is one of the most crucial parts in the audio chain,” He continues. “You can introduce smear or bloating in certain frequencies if the RIAA is not flat.* You will have boosts or drops in frequencies consistently on every record.”
“With our Pyxi (phono stage), you hear how the album was mastered and mixed without taking away from (or adding in) frequencies.”
Space Age Technology for “Zero Cogging Motors”
The SOTA Direct Drive Emerald prototype with a Renishaw read head and optical encoder ring with 360,000 lines per revolution (in the 70s, they’d take 80 lines per revolution) is used in government technologies that require there are no poles, resulting in zero cogging motors, Christan informs.
Tour Over — Time for a Listen!
Our tour concluded, Christan shows-off a band T-shirt bearing the name of his daughter’s band. A proud dad, nowadays, he’s relegated to chauffeur duties as he shuttles her to various gigs, he gushes with a grin.
Jumping into our cars, we drive to the headquarters of his friend and client, Tommy Winter at Elkhorn Electro Polishing. Walking in, I spy a massive, custom Titanium e-Bike in the lobby. It turns out, like Christan, Winter is an avid bicyclist. Standing upwards of 6’ 9”, Winter spends lots of time in his office, so he maintains a lovely vinyl listening system on the front wall of his office some 10 feet in front of his huge desk. It boasts a pair of REL S 5-10 subwoofers, KEF Reference I standmount speakers, Pass Labs Int-60 amplifier, a SOTA Series 6 Nova turntable with an external SOTA Roadrunner, Sota Pyxi phonostage, Grado Reference 3 cartridge, and a Jelco 850 tonearm. A large collection of vinyl adorns a sidewall.
Cristan, at left, stands on his tippy-toes to not look too small standing next to his friend, Tommy.
The sound is relaxed and refined, deliciously dynamic and sumptuous, showcasing the finer qualities on vinyl done right. Sinking into our chairs, we are transported back to our youth as teenagers marveling at the magic of music. Pink Floyd. Herbie Hancock’s Rockit. Maria Schneider Orchestra’s “Hang Gliding”. Dave Brubeck’s 1964 Jazz Impressions of Japan. Taking the A Train – The Third –a direct to disc cut recording that is simply divine! The music washes over us in waves, soothing our souls and cleansing us from the worries and debris of this chaotic 2024 election year.
Adieau
The time has passed too quickly, but rejuvenated, we say our goodbyes.
I call my wife to catch up and give her an estimated arrival time for dinner, take in the serene pastoral countryside drive, and relish this afternoon’s experience. During these turbid times of social change and unrest, it’s important to catch the fleeting joyous, soothing, and magic moments as you can, when you can. They’re there to be had, but all to often rushed, consumed, their remnants cast aside like fast food disposables. But that’s the beauty of vinyl playback: it forces you to slow down as you unpack, platter, wipe, and lower the stylus, unleashing the warm, luxuriant strains of analog music as you view the liner notes. And SOTA Turntables affords you a premium means to experience it in its fullness. It was great to see how they produce their wares, one at a time, and afterwards, enjoy the fruits of their labor with fellow audio aficionados.