Opera Consonance Wax Engine and Charisma Audio ECO

REVIEW
Steve Dickinson
Sep 15, 2025

The Opera Consonance Wax Engine and Charisma Audio ECO turntable system is a package, just not a one-make one. The Wax Engine is a turntable and arm bundle from one manufacturer. It’s mated here to the ECO moving coil cartridge from another. It’s been put together by the UK distributor, who handles both product ranges. So it differs from the type of single-brand turntable/ arm/ cartridge combinations that can readily be found in dealers the length of the country. However, it still makes that tricky matching decision for the purchaser.

In taking some of the mystique and mythology out of the equation, it probably opens up the market to those who want to upgrade from My First Turntable, or even My Second Turntable, but who don’t want to immerse themselves in turntable lore in doing so.

Potential purchasers

For around £2,000, any potential purchasers will clearly be taking vinyl replay seriously and want more than the budget offerings will give. So the big question is: play safe and go with an established brand, or see what else is out there?

The Wax Engine represents the entry point to the Consonance turntable range. The company that manufactures Consonance is the company which Well Tempered uses to build its own range of products. Therefore, Well Tempered has allowed Consonance to use some of its patented technologies under license. But if tonearm bearings comprised of a golf ball floating in goop are a bit too radical for you just now, the Wax Engine might offer insights into The Well Tempered Way Of Doing Things™ without having to embrace all the, um, lateral thinking. It’s a skeletal design, a simple cruciform chassis fabricated from rectangular section, solid aluminium bar. One crosspiece houses the bearing, a second, slightly offset crosspiece for the 12V DC motor. The whole thing sits on three, height adjustable, elastomer feet for levelling and a measure of environmental isolation.

Zero Clearance

The turntable bearing sits on the longer crosspiece and uses the Well Tempered ‘zero clearance’ bearing design of an equilateral triangular section hole, into which the stainless steel platter spindle drops, with the pointy end of the spindle sitting on a Teflon thrust bearing. The triangular section therefore only makes contact with the spindle at three points, reducing friction and potential noise, while still providing sufficient lateral support to locate the platter stably. One apex of the triangle points directly towards the motor, so belt tension will also help stabilise the spindle.

And that belt will also be familiar to Well Tempered aficionados. It’s a loop of monofilament fishing line, with a clever knot that traverses the motor pulley and platter cleanly. However, the tiny cross-section transfers barely any motor noise to the playing surface. The platter, which is integral with the spindle, is in nicely finished, frosted acrylic, and supplied with a cork playing mat.

The 9” Allegro tonearm is a relatively conventional but carefully executed gimbal design with a precision bearing arrangement into tapered shafts, no golf balls in goop here. An aluminium armtube damped with cotton fibre finishes in a vestigial head piece, a simple, stubby, angled crossbar, drilled for the usual cartridge mounting bolts. Connections are via two phono sockets on the rear of the chassis close to the armtube, with a hard-wired flying lead for the earth. There’s no separate earth attachment point so I left the earth strap on my Nordost Heimdall 2 tonearm cable floating free. There was a small amount of residual hum which, in the absence of alternative earthing options, I never managed to clear, but this was inaudible in use and only apparent when no music was playing.

A bit Special

The supplied cartridge is also a little bit special for a package at this price. The Charisma Audio ECO, a low output moving coil with an aluminium body, and a nude, super elliptical stylus mounted onto a light but stiff ceramic cantilever that is also used in Charisma Audio’s top end Signature Two cartridge. It retails on its own for £795, and on the basis of how it performs in this setup, it’s well worth investigating in its own right if you’re in the market for a high-performing, sub-£1000 low output MC.

So, quite a lot of thought and clever engineering has gone into this package. But does it reward the purchaser brave enough to eschew the usual suspects? I don’t want to spoil the surprise but yes, I’d say so. It’s quickly apparent that the Wax Engine/ECO combo delivers a sound which is energetic and fun; performances have layers, form and structure, parts are distinct and easy to follow, tonality, textures and inflection all present and correct.

Andy Sheppard ‘Romantic Conversations’ from Introductions in the Dark (Antilles) starts with a traditional song from Sierra Leone on flute and percussion and it’s full of colour and vitality, then the piece develops, with Sheppard’s sax, piano and the rest of the ensemble taking their own places in the soundstage. Colours are vibrant and generous, a well fleshed-out piano and marimba set against the sax and percussion, there is a dialogue between the parts happening here. It’s very evident that deck and cartridge work well together. The building blocks for an engaging performer are in place.

A Qualifier

There is one small qualifier to all this: The 12V DC motor runs off a ‘wall wart’ switch mode power supply. This works well enough in driving the turntable, but in my system it sounded a little safe and bland. It had a definite detrimental effect on overall system performance: other sources such as CD were also affected, sounding less vibrant and dynamic. Replacing this 12V supply with a low noise switch mode supply gave significant benefits to all sources, including the turntable. I tried two iFi units, firstly the iPower 2, which brought about notable improvements. However, this review has been done using an iFi iPower X to do the turntable proper justice; tonal colours are richer, there’s a better sense of flow, and of how instruments are being played. For the relatively small additional outlay, I’d firmly recommend investigating upgrading the power supply in this manner.

Lower noise

So, using the lower noise power supply, instruments on the Opera Consonance Wax Engine and Charisma Audio ECO have more colour and form and the underlying structural elements to the music are better-resolved. Tambourines on ‘Pule’ from Abdulla Ibrahim’s album Mindif (Enja) have texture and inflection, not just rhythm. That’s not just a ‘nice to have’, that textural and dynamic information lets you hear how the instrument is being played and because this low level detail is available for the asking, music makes more sense and is more engaging. ‘Pule’ is perky, the bass line is tuneful and propulsive, instruments presented with a strong sense of what they are.

‘Anitra’s Dance’ from the Peer Gynt Suite (Marriner, St Martin in the Fields, EMI) trips lightly along, the call and response between the string parts is effective – violins, violas and cellos are tonally and spatially well realised; the dance-like nature of this piece entirely obvious. Fairground Attraction ‘Perfect’ (RCA) has all the toe-tapping jauntiness I want, the vocal is characterful and tuneful, joyful even. Proper feelgood music.

The options

Looking at the many turntable, arm and cartridge options available at around £2,000, purchasers can be forgiven for leaning towards the ‘one make’ packages that often predominate. But this is a level somewhat above the ‘plug and play’ entry point to vinyl replay. It’s not always the case that manufacturers which excel at budget packages can replicate that value at a higher price point. The Opera Consonance Wax Engine and Charisma Audio ECO combination takes this market sector on squarely and offers the same ‘unbox and play’ simplicity. This package delivers a truly engaging musical performance that brings out the appeal of well-executed vinyl replay. This might be a revelation to somebody weaning themselves off an inexpensive turntable. There’s a lot to like here, and if you’re open to something a little bit different, you’ll be amply rewarded.

Technical specifications

Opera Consonance Wax Engine

Type: belt drive, skeletal chassis turntable with DC motor and 9” Allegro tonearm
Rotational Speeds: 33 1/3 RPM; 45 RPM, accuracy within 0.01% adjustable via potentiometer, supplied strobe disc
Platter type: acrylic, with integral sub-platter and stainless steel bearing spindle with hardened point
Bearing type: Well Tempered ‘Zero Clearance’ triangular well, Teflon thrust pad
Suspension: solid, with adjustable elastomer feet for isolation and levelling
Tonearm: 9” straight, gimballed tonearm with 2-axis tapered bearing shafts
Tonearm Length: 214mm
Overhang: 16mm
Offset angle: 23 degrees
Cartridge weight: 4-22g
Turntable Dimensions: (HxWxD) 145 x 385 x 345mm
Weight: 6Kg
Price: £1,295, $1,260, €1,295

Charisma Audio ECO