[Installation & Testing] The WAM Engineering wally Tools universal protractor

Product name: WAM Engineering Wallytools Protractor
Manufacturer/supplier: WAM Engineering LLC
EU and UK supplier: Kirmuss Audio
Price:(kit as reviewed): $395
Reviewer: Mark Wheeler - TNT-Audio UK
Reviewed: July, 2025

Kit contents

Described as the Wallytools entry level kit, the package includes the WallySkater v2.1 Pro (an additional $310) plus this WallyTractor v2.2 kit comprising:

Where's Wally?

Whatever your religious or secular beliefs about where the late Wally Malewicz (1942 - 2018) might be now, his amazing cartridge set up system is thriving here on earth...
“Of course, American Readers will be bewildered by this because the Where's Wally books are rebranded Where's Waldo in North America,” clarify Plebs, stage left

Now watch the seven alignment targets on the Wally school blog. Even as a turntable tinkerer for half a century, your Old Scribe learned something new.

WAM Re-Launch

WAM Engineering paid their final respects to the brilliant engineer and inventor Wally Malewicz in 2018. Demand for his turntable setup tools was always higher than he'd been able to supply. Therefore WAM Engineering was relaunched in 2019 in a joint effort between Wally's former production assistant and Wally's son who, like his father, is a highly skilled mechanical engineer. Wally had discussed many possible improvements and variations to his products but never had the time to try them out. WAM Engineering say that they were proud to re-introduce the original products with the improvements he had envisioned, and continue refining the designs.

Your Old Scribe immediately loves the hand drawn illustrations on the instructions and the superb craftsmanship of parts like the metal bodied magnifier. Your Old Scribe is of a generation that prefers written illustrated instructions to instructional videos. I have to admit though that the Wallytools videos are essential to get the best from these tools but I do wish that they were divided into much smaller chapters with a more useful index!

Predicting the benefits of this set of tools on your system, dear reader, is impossible. It all depends how far away your alignment is from optimum. Despite over 50 years of setting up cartridges, one of mine was way off while another was already near perfect. It is such a thorough set up regime that your Old Scribe is going to present you with a succession of articles about how well each part of the procedure works, and how. If you worry about tinkering, be assured that the videos and instructions are very clear and it is no more complicated than setting up a simple carburettor.

The Ritual

Because each part of the process must be followed in order, it might be thought of as a ritual. Because precision is the order of the day at every step, it might be considered a ritual. Because we hope that by performing these actions, our lives will be improved ever after, it might be considered a ritual. But unlike those other rituals of Genus Audiophoolia performed with magic oils at daybreak in ancient stone circles, the Wallytools ritual is embedded in simple engineering. The first act is accurate measurement. The supplied turntable axis to pickup arm pivot measurement tool is the epitome of form following function. This measurement needs to be precise for all the following steps to work and this tool makes it easy with most arms. Those arms with bewildering bearing housings will be more challenging but still far less challenging than with conventional tools.

"Oh no!" Wail Plebs Chorus, stage left, "He's off again! The Old Scribe descends again into a familiar pun laden circle of Hell, and one that won't work on our Italian pages either"

Armed with the protractor disc and magnifier, attention turned first to the Dynavector DV XX2mk2 which was already mounted and aligned (using the Audio Origami protractor) in the 12inch AO PU7 Ti pickup arm. The Bearwald alignment is the chosen headshell offset for this arm which is handy because that is what Wallytools uses. The Wallytools protractor disc result matched the AO protractor. However, using the excellent metal bodied magnifying glass and mirror disc, it was obvious that azimuth could be improved. Once that was adjusted, bias obviously had to be adjusted to suit. I initially used the HFN/Len Gregory test disc instead of the Wallytools own procedure so that we are examining just one change at a time. The soundstage grew in all three dimensions, presumably because the high frequency phase performance is more accurate.

Aligning the Decca London

Armed with the correct measurement and the protractor disc, the next task is choosing the correct groove on the protractor disc. There is now a brand new Mk2 disc that may have even more grooves than mine. Despite the fact that the 12 inch AO PU7 Ti falls between two of the grooves on my protractor version 2.1, it was actually easy to line up the walnut bodied Decca London cartridge because the front of the cartridge body was in exactly the right place for an equivalent groove, and an arc being an arc with the same axis, this works. The stylus tip should trace the correct path midway between two of the grooves.

Watching video 2 of the extensive Wallytools library, your Old Scribe learns that the traditional null points probably do not make the most of our post 1990 record collections. In order to make tracking distortion no worse at the inner groove than the outer or mid-side, overall distortion has been sacrificed over most of the side with traditional Stephenson/Lofgren setups. Moving the null points further out benefits all but the innermost 8mm of available vinyl real estate. Given that many modern discs, especially audiophile pressings, have no music within 68mm, this inner accuracy seems less important than the other 60mm of playing surface. So your Old Scribe resets the AO PU7Ti at the Wallytools suggested null points and plays a tracking test.

Suddenly it sounds like the bias is too high! Everything is related to everything else in cartridge set up. Your Old Scribe had to double and triple check the outcome of this because it was so different from what seemed correct with an OEM protractor. The cartridge is now further out and at an angle in the headshell compared with the typical parallel lines on cardboard method. Then tracking force and VTA/SRA are adjusted. Once certain that I had not made any errors so far, the axial azimuth was aligned using the Wallytools magnifier. Once again this is a joy to use being so well made. If I have any suggestion for a future product it would be a half magnifier (like half-moon spectacles) to use with wide bodied low rider cartridges like the Decca London series. The optical centre of the full circle magnifier can be awkwardly high with some low flat bottom cartridges, but it is a magnificent beast accurately machined in aluminium.

Because the various Wallytools gadgets are sold separately, this first review confines itself to the Wallytractor. Pickup arm friction and torque had already been measured using the Wallyskater, of which more in the next review. Finally, against the usual Wallytools procedure, the bias force (sometimes known incorrectly as anti-skate) is optimised using my a priori preferred method of test signal groove (never a blank disc) and all adjustments double checked again. Owners of the WallySkater will use that tool to set bias, but this test is dealing with one step at a time. The next episode will deal with that.

Sound Quality

Immediately on installing the Decca London in place of the Dynavector, before applying the Wallytools protractor, there there was a problem. The problem was mostly on the right channel. Treble and vocals were recessed and the soundstage was biased left. Bass was central. I had measured balance using a frequency sweep. It would start central at 15Hz than shift left by about 300Hz then the treble would retreat to the tweeters, sounding like mistracking in the right channel. Knowing how thorough the setup procedure had been, I examined the cartridge really carefully and discovered a tiny piece of debris lodged against the tie wire. This may have taken many hours of fault finding without confidence in the Wallytools protractor. Even with this tool it took about 2 hours to get right.

The Dynavector XX2 MkII had been very close, using a conventional protractor, to the alignment with the Wallytools WallyTractor. The Decca was substantially different on the 12inch AO PU7 Ti. After 2 hours double checking, because it was so different, the first album was played. The old HiFi Today Nimbus Supercut of Little Feat's Feats Don't Fail Me Now now sounded again as it should. All the strengths of the notorious Decca London and the Titanium AO PU7 become audible once again.

Properly aligned, the Decca London now sounds much more secure in the groove, which is not a sentence the plebs would ever expect to read about a Decca cartridge. The famed Decca qualities usually associated with a unipivot arm now begin to be audible with this longer gimbal arm. It was in this condition that the AO PU7 Ti review was written.

George meets Wally

The Hadcock GH242SE pivot to spindle distance is 225mm. This is 3mm beyond the 222mm arc on the Wally tractor. The Wallytractor confirms George Hadcock's choice of geometry. A slight change in vestigial headshell position was required for the Decca London but none for the Dynavector cartridge. Our capacity for memory of sound quality is notoriously volatile and I cannot state confidently whether there was audible improvement from the previous alignment condition heard weeks ago.

Outcomes and Conclusion

This is just Step One of what is possible with the WallyTractor Universal protractor and magnifier. Motoring analogy alert: the difference is setting up the timing and mixture on an internal combustion engine; once it was by the age old ritual of plug chopping on a steep hill; nowadays we'd take it to a dyno. The first method is good enough until we try the second. This is certainly the best cartridge alignment system that your Old Scribe has tried in over half a century of setting up turntables. It is as incredibly accurately made as Wally Tools claim and probably doesn't get more accurate or universally applicable.

So the first outing for the Wallytools system proves more successful than “it works”. This is one of those audio products that you didn't know you need until you try it and then it is essential. Your Old Scribe only ordered the basic set but plans to order the full system once I have thoroughly learned this box full.

The basic system includes the laser-etched pivot to spindle ruler, the spindle jig, the magnifier and the wonderfully designed mirror disc. Your Old Scribe is more enthusiastic about this than any actual audio component because it can be used over and over again to optimise whatever analogue front end you buy in future.

The Wallytools system seems to offer total customisation in that it is not matched to one pickup arm length, one pickup arm geometry or even one choice of alignment dogma. Furthermore, with the Wallytools system we can go further than the traditional Stevenson, Beowald and Lofgren null points, chasing the best of all possible worlds. Because there is so much to learn and test, there will be several visits to the subject over the coming months.

Next time in Part 2 we'll look at the Wally Skater, a tool you didn't know you needed until you've played with one.

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Thorough vinyl pickup cartridge set up procedure

The WAM Engineering wally Tools universal protractor - part 1

Probably the most sophisticated entry level audio accessory today