⌈ Lublin – a city with county-level status in southeastern Poland. It is one of the largest cities in eastern Poland, with a population of approximately 340,000 (as of 2024), and serves as an important cultural, scientific, and administrative center of the region, as the capital of the Lublin Voivodeship. It is one of the oldest cities in Poland - according to Kadłubek and Długosz, the city was founded as early as 810. It is the headquarters of the J. Sikora. ⌋

I HAD IT ALL FIGURED OUT and planned, as much as you can plan an interview. Janusz Sikora, the founder and, until recently, head of J.Sikora, has been a friend of mine for many years; I respect his work, and he appreciates mine, always sending me his products for one of the very first reviews.

I traveled to Lublin with prepared questions and an outline for the meeting, which was meant to be a sort of summary of Janusz’s work at the company. The cover of this issue of “High Fidelity” featured a photograph created using the cyanotype technique by artist Marcin Jucha from ostatniesztuki.art to further emphasize the importance of this interview. That part, at least, went according to the original plan.

‖ Janusz Sikora with the company’s logo behind him

As you might have guessed, nothing went according to my plan. The conversation meandered between events sometimes from as far back as twenty years, touching on people, products, and encounters that had a lot in common with Janusz, but not necessarily in the way I had imagined. History is, after all, a living thing that is recreated each time anew, because it is based on memory. And memory creates its own worlds, suddenly opening windows before us that we had no idea existed and prompting questions entirely different from those we had planned.

It was a true journey into the past, to the era of the first audio publications in Poland, into spaces dominated by the country’s first magazine of its kind, Gdańsk’s “Magazyn Hi-Fi,” experienced together with two other crew members - Robert Sikora and Adam Niezbecki. They are, in fact, the people currently behind the J.Sikora company, with the veteran serving in an advisory role. In my opinion, this is one of the best and most successful succession stories in the Polish audio industry. There are still very few of these, and when they do happen, they often come to nothing. The example of J.Sikora strikes me as exemplary.

Wojciech Pacuła talks to Janusz Sikora, Robert Sikora and Adam Niezbeckia.

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‖ PREHISTORY

WOJCIECH PACUŁA • At first, audio was just a hobby, wasn’t it?

JANUSZ SIKORA • Yes, designing and building audio components were my hobby, my escape into the world of music. After years of playing and making music, when I realized I wasn’t a virtuoso and it wasn’t going to amount to anything, but I still needed to find a way to stay connected to music, I started thinking about audio equipment. My father built tube amplifiers for live performances, and I used to help him, so I knew a thing or two about it. And there was always music playing at our house.

So my children listened to music too, whether they wanted to or not, even though we lived in an apartment building. My youngest son, now 190 cm tall, would move his hands to the beat as soon as he heard rhythmic songs while he was still in his stroller - maybe that’s why he became a musician… Anyway, Robert plays, too (Robert Sikora - Janusz Sikora’s middle child; his older son - ed.). But even he, before he started jamming with his brother in a band, had his own stereo system. All my kids had them, including my daughter Iza.

WP • How was it for you to give away your company?

JANUSZ • To me, it wasn’t about giving the company away. It was completely natural, like a record spinning on a turntable. Back when he was still in college, Robert used to earn some extra money working for me, making railings - since that was my first business - installing and designing them. Meanwhile, in the other half of our workshop, I was building my own amplifiers.

‖ Janusz Sikora and his top record players, Reference and Standard Max

It was a good time financially - we were doing well - but the stress associated with that job, which weighed heavily on both Robert and me, made me start thinking about an alternative - I didn’t want us to work that way. As a result of this change in perspective, in 2014 we decided to present our turntable for the first time at the Audio Show in Warsaw.

ROBERT SIKORA • Interestingly enough, I was there too, as a young boy, without realizing that this was my future. I just went there to help my dad.

‖ BURDJAK & SIKORA » 1995-1997

WP • It all started with Burdjak & Sikora tube amplifiers, though. I remember reviews of those in „Magazyn Hi-Fi”.

JANUSZ • That is true. I met Oleg Burdjak at the Lublin-based audio showroom called Meloman. We met there, we spoke several times, and ultimately we decided we would do something together. My main business allowed me to make really good-looking chassis for the amps, and the sound quality was really good too. I remember that when I took my amplifier to Gdańsk to see Grzesiek Swinarski (former editor-in-chief of “Magazyn Hi-Fi” - ed.), everyone really liked it; people were surprised that something like that had been made in Poland.

ROBERT • At the time, I was still completely oblivious to everything. We attended the Audio Show in Warsaw, the very first one, with the amplifiers. I was just there, with no idea what I was doing. But I remember that everyone emphasized that those amplifiers sounded very good - and they were paired with Focal Utopia speakers, which were making their Polish debut at the time.

JANUSZ • I met Marcin Lewa, from Amar Audio, Focal’s representative in Poland, at a meeting in Gdańsk. Marcin did an excellent job and even received a gold-colored Utopia from the manufacturer in recognition of his “achievements.” I myself owned a PointSource 5.1, and “Hi-Fi Magazine” bought a pair as well.

ROBERT • As you probably remember, it was an absolute hit back then. I bought a pair, too, and didn’t sell them until about four years ago. We also keep my old Zoller speakers in the warehouse - they were a huge hit back in the day. We brought them back from the show in Frankfurt.

WP • Since we are talking about Burdjak & Sikora amplifiers – how did it all end?

‖ Burdjak & Sikora power amplifier featuring 6s33s output tubes • photo courtesy of J.Sikora

JANUSZ • The story of these amplifiers came to a natural end. After the first show I mentioned, a few months later I received word that Manfred Zoller would like to showcase our products with us in the United States, where he already had a representative. However, this would have required preparing a dozen or so amplifiers and traveling to the U.S. It turned out to be impossible to organize, and Burdjak and I went our separate ways - and that’s how the brand’s story ended.

WP • And at the time, your core business was still a production and installation of railings?

JANUSZ • Indeed, the main business was still running, and the amplifiers were nothing more than a hobby, a costly one, I might add. It all lasted some three years, between 1995 and 1997.

ROBERT • I remember those days, and looking back, what seems much more important to me - besides experiencing some cool audio gear - is the people we met back then. That’s also when Adam came along (Adam Niezbecki, one of the pillars of J. Sikora - ed.). I didn’t know yet that twenty years later I would ask him to start working with us…

WP • And what did you Adam do at the time?

ADAM NIEZBECKI • I worked at a publishing house back then. In fact, I’ve spent my entire career at publishing houses, eventually becoming editor-in-chief. Along the way, I worked my way up through all the ranks in production, prepress, and so on. Janusz and I knew each other because I’d bought a pair of monoblocks from him, and it was that very pair of mine that was paired with GLD speakers at the 1997 Audio Show.

Everyone really liked them. Janusz still uses that pair today - it’s the pair that was originally made for Marek Sawicki (Marek Sawicki - audio journalist and sound engineer, graduate of Sound Engineering at Gdańsk University of Technology, one of the reviewers for “Magazyn Hi-Fi” - ed.).

ROBERT • You see now, Wojtek, that’s how my youth looked like - all those new, interesting people and music…

JANUSZ • Yes, everything somehow ties together. Come to think of it - Marcin Lewa, whom I mentioned, brought a pair of JMLab Utopia speakers to the trade show back then, straight from France, and our fellow countryman, Tomek Zeliszewski (drummer for Budka Suflera - ed.), still uses that pair to this day.

WP • So, the story of Burdjak & Sikora ends, and what comes next?

JANUSZ • I focused back on my core business. I couldn’t stay away from audio for long, and a while later I started to build solid-state amplifiers. It was never anything more than a hobby, and we made no more than 10 units of those.

ADAM • I bought one myself and I still have it.

JANUSZ • You can find another one, a pair of monoblocks, in one of the setups at Soyaton’s Julek Soja house.

‖ Audio Show 2014 – the first-ever presentation of J.Sikora turntables • photo courtesy of J.Sikora

ROBERT • These amplifiers were not branded; they had no name and came in various finishes - chrome-plated, brass, and with various components. You can sometimes find them on the second-hand market, and now that the J. Sikora brand has become well-known, they are described as amplifiers by „that” Sikora :)

JANUSZ • I played with transistors until the construction industry boom began - I couldn’t afford to get distracted anymore; we had more work than we could handle. That’s when we began construction of the building where we are now and where the turntable factory operates. In 2000, we broke ground, and a year later we were already moving in.

For five or six years, I just listened to music; I had nothing to do with the audio market. Well, unless some audiophile was building a house and bought railings from me. Today, he might sell them as railings from “that” Sikora, hehehe… But for myself, I modified CD players, turntables, and amplifiers. We’d get together at my place with friends, listen to records, and that was the greatest pleasure. In 2014, when the construction industry started to change, we showed off our turntable, and once again, everything was turned upside down.

‖ J.SIKORA Pt. 1: Standard – Reference – Initial » 2014-2016

WOJTEK • How did that happen? After all, it didn't just come out of nowhere, did it?

JANUSZ • It’s true, it all started a little earlier, once again thanks to the people around me. In Świdnik, we had a friend who owned a turntable made by the Czech company Aura. It wasn’t set up properly, so we always preferred to listen to CDs at his place, using a cool Marantz model. By the way, my transistor amplifier is still at his place to this day.

Eventually, though, Darek bought a ZYX cartridge and asked me to help him set it up. I set it up, and it sounded so good that it blew us away. And he was playing it through wonderful Snell Acoustics Type A speakers. It sounded better at his place than at any of ours. That’s how our search began - trying to figure out why it “sounded right” at his place but not at ours.

At the same time, I started having heart problems, and to take my mind off things a bit and de-stress, I decided to buy myself an expensive turntable. I spent 38,000 zlotys on it back then, which was a really large sum. But… When I turned it on, I couldn’t believe I’d spent so much on it, and yet it still “didn’t sound right.” I then wondered what it was about a turntable that made one as good as Darek’s, while another - even if more expensive - wasn’t.

Even back then, I knew that I didn’t want wood in my turntable. As you might guess, I’m a metal specialist, and that’s my material of choice. Wood warps, changes over time, and is unstable - I did not doubt that I had to do something about it. At first, I started tweaking my turntable - swapping out parts, reinforcing it, and so on - but eventually I gave up and built my own. I used the bearing and motor from a turntable I’d bought, since those components were actually pretty good, as was the Jelco tonearm. That’s how J.Sikora began - out of frustration.

‖ Audio Show 2014 once more • photo courtesy of J.Sikora

ROBERT • That’s how I remember it, too - the prototype of J. Sikora’s turntable was based on an existing design, in which my dad replaced most of the components, primarily the plinth and the tonearm base. The diagnosis was: wood is the problem.

JANUSZ • That’s true; in my opinion, using wood in a product where every fraction of a millimeter counts is a mistake. After all, no two pieces of wood are exactly alike, so there’s no repeatability; besides, it’s a material that’s constantly under stress and changes over time. That’s why, whether it’s the base or the arms, I find wood to be unreliable.

WOJTEK • Modifying and exiting design and founding a production company are two different things. So how did J.Sikora brand came to be?

JANUSZ • It was simply “grassroots” work. When I take on a project, I break it down into its constituent parts and go right down to the very foundations. I started with ideas I’d once observed in other mass loader designs. They seemed very good to me, and then I modified them as I saw fit. But the materials were still the most important factor.

Getting to the first working device that I was satisfied with took me a year of work, trials, and experiments. I used up hundreds of kilograms of materials in the process, materials that after that were only fit for melting down. And I succeeded only because I had the machinery, access to materials, and people who knew how to work with those materials.

ROBERT • Looking back, I realize that the selection of materials was the most important factor for the success of the design. Dad is modest and wouldn’t say it, but he really knows his way around metal, and his expertise proved invaluable. After all, that’s what he’s been doing his whole life - metalworking. Replacing wood wasn’t just a simple swap of one material for another; it was a step into a whole new realm.

WOJTEK • So, when was the first turntable ready that could be called a J.Sikora product?

JANUSZ • I started working on it in 2007, and it was finished in 2009 when other people could finally see and listen to it. The first few units were made for friends, including the friend from Świdnik I mentioned - the one who owned Aura. And they were the ones who encouraged me to start a company. The Standard model evolved from that prototype, and for the 2014 Audio Show - when we made our first official appearance - I developed the Reference model.

The one that was presented at the show was also made for a friend. And it was he, Lech, who convinced me to exhibit in Warsaw. He himself suggested that I take his unit. On top of that, he financed the entire event, including advertising and so on. And it’s thanks to him that the brand had the chance to reach a wider audience at that time.

ROBERT • Yes, that’s important - the company was, in a way, created or forced by his friends, who had previously bought turntables from him and believed they had potential.

JANUSZ • In Warsaw, we rented a room at the Sobieski Hotel; we set up a display with my Goodman speakers, my amplifier, and two turntables - and that’s how it all began. Even a few years later, people would come by and say it was magic.

WOJTEK • Were you already convinced back then that this was your future, or was it still just a “side gig” alongside your main job?

ROBERT • Let me jump in for a second, because I’d already been to the show with my dad, and I remember it well. I was still learning about it, but it was already clear in my mind that you have to go all in, that the time for half-measures was over. People were truly fascinated by the sound; we sat with them for hours, and I could see that we had something special on our hands. And I liked it…

To think that we’d change the company’s line of businesses - especially a company that was bringing in good money -and a real change is, after all, two different things. At that time, none of us was planning full-scale production yet. We assumed that maybe 20% would be turntables, and the rest would still be railings. None of us thought it was possible to break into the high-end market and make a living from it. Those were still times when in Poland - apart from a few exceptions, like Ancient Audio - companies of this type weren’t able to make a name for themselves enough for it to become their primary business.

Today it’s different - the groundwork has been laid, and there are quite a few Polish high-end companies known around the world, so it’s easier. But back then - it was a pretty crazy idea.

‖ Audio Video Show 2016; Janusz Sikora meeting with the late Wally Malewicz • photo courtesy of J.Sikora

JANUSZ • For me, it was still a way to de-stress and take my mind off the company's problems.

ROBERT • I noticed something interesting. Most of the people I met back then who were producing audio equipment were still doing it mainly to feel better about themselves, to make a name for themselves in the industry - but as individuals, as designers, not as a company. And that sense of pride was enough for them. Hardly anyone back then even believed that it was possible to go professional. And, in reality, very few wanted to do it.

After all, that requires a lot of money. In the Polish high-end scene, no one - absolutely no one - was thinking in those terms back then. These were personal projects, not companies, which inevitably led to the projects winding down after a while. Today, anyone thinking about starting a company starts from a different foundation - design is important, sound is important too, but if it’s going to succeed, it has to be a product, not just an idea.

JANUSZ • To be honest, I was a little unsure at the time and wasn’t ready at all to launch a full-scale company. After my experiences with Burdjak & Sikora amplifiers - back in those pioneering days for the Polish audio industry - I didn’t believe a Polish product had a chance of making a name for itself anywhere in Europe, let alone the United States. Asia was beyond our imagination at the time.

I knew, however, that having a good product wasn’t the hard part, because there were plenty of such manufacturers in Poland. It’s a truism - I know I’m repeating myself - but the real challenge is selling it. You have to invest a lot of money, time, and effort, and then maybe - but only “maybe” - you’ll succeed. Back then, in 2014, we were still making those railings, and they were the ones working for our turntables.

ROBERT • That was also the moment when I began to take over some of my dad’s responsibilities in the “railing” business, so he’d have more time for turntables. The fact that I was later able to build a global structure under the name “J. Sikora” was the result of the experience I had gained at that time and the fact that I had previously done the same on the local market with what was then our core business. Certain models had already been established, and - most importantly - we already had the right people in place.

I’ll go so far as to say - though this may be controversial - that people build a company, not the product. The product is the foundation. In the high-end market, however, there are plenty of good devices. But it’s the personalities within the company that make it all come together. For example, after ten years, someone on the other side of the world - whether in California or Singapore - will invest thousands of dollars in a turntable from Poland. That is, an unknown product from an unknown company in a place on the map that’s only vaguely familiar. For me, this is a fundamental change, and it’s the result of the work of everyone in the company. The product alone doesn’t lead to that.

WOJTEK • All of that requires a lot of work. Robert, when did you start to feel, that it was time to focus more on the turntable business?

ROBERT • I think it was when in early 2018 we were driving to the Show in Hamburg. That’s when it occurred to me that we had to really push ourselves hard, because something was starting to change around us - a new space was emerging where it was easier for us to breathe. So we had to step out of our comfort zone. I told my dad back then that in a few years, this had to be our only job.

WOJTEK • It's also important to stop endlessly refining and polishing the product, right?

ROBERT • Yes, that’s very important! To work with distributors and stores you have to give them a finished product that they’ll have a chance to work with. And if you keep telling them every few minutes that you’ve made another improvement, you’ll discourage them from working with you. Unfortunately, a large number of audio companies are still in the “fine-tuning” stage.

JANUSZ • For me, it's easy in that when I finish something, I'm happy with it and rarely go back to the project to fix it. If anything, I just start on something new.

‖ Audio Video Show 2018 and meeting with Jeff Fox, J.Sikora’s American distributor • photo courtesy of J.Sikora

WOJTEK • It’s 2014 and decisions have to be made. What did it look like for you?

JANUSZ • Robert’s work was already starting to generate contacts and interest from distributors. So I told him that if he could get to the point where the flow of orders was steady enough to ensure continuous operation of the plant, we could stop making railings.

It didn’t happen right away, but over time, an increasing percentage of the work on the machines involved machining components for turntables, while the percentage devoted to railings gradually decreased. When it reached a b>fifty-fifty split, we decided to take a risk. We renovated the factory, purchased additional machines, and devoted ourselves entirely to turntables.

ROBERT • It was a time when Dad was designing new things, assembling turntables, and didn’t do anything else at all in the little room right next door, behind the wall. I, on the other hand, was handling both the balustrades and the turntables. We also decided to do serious reviews and chose you - and “High Fidelity” - as the one who would understand what we have to offer with the Reference model. At the end of 2015, my dad and our friend Jurek brought a turntable to you, and the review was published in early 2016.

JANUSZ • Everything you wrote about back then, Wojtek, turned out to be true and was confirmed. Subsequent reviews in „Stereophile”, „The Absolute Sound”, and other magazines simply echoed what you had already concluded about that device.

ROBERT • Dad was sure that you and Marek Dyba would be the reviewers who would get all our products first.

WOJTEK • You mentioned top audio magazines – when did you realize that your brand was truly recognized and appreciated? There was surely such a moment, wasn’t there?

ROBERT • I’ll tell you, because I remember it perfectly. It was back then, when we flew to the U.S., because our distributor there said we had to be there. That was “the” time. However, every market requires a different approach, and building a new market - even with everything we already have - takes at least two to three years.

WOJTEK • Was Adam already a member of the crew?

ROBERT • Yes, he was, but he didn’t come to USA with us that time - I was there with my dad. Back then, people would come to us as if we were someone they knew. It seems that the situation in that market changed after Michael Fremer’s review, the cover of „Stereophile”, and the Reference turntable’s inclusion in the A+ or the highest category, which at the time included only three other turntables in the world besides ours (this was in July 2022, Volume 45, No. 7 - ed.). That was the moment when the brand’s recognition changed.

WOJTEK • Lets take a step back and talk about your products – in 2014 you still had only two models, and then the third one, Initial, joined the family.

JANUSZ • That’s when the need arose to develop a more affordable turntable, the Initial model. The company needed to expand its product lineup. No one is going to take a brand seriously if it only has two products - it needs a product portfolio. The third turntable was meant to be the “entry-level” model. Its official launch took place in November 2016 at the Audio Video Show in Warsaw, and, in fact, it was the first turntable to be reviewed in the U.S. It was also important that it was scalable. You could start with the basic configuration and then upgrade it to the Initial Max - that was already in 2019.

WOJTEK • Since we're on the subject of tests, could you please tell me how they work for a company like yours, aside from promotion?

ROBERT • Anyone who thinks that a good review automatically translates into sales is mistaken. It has to be an accumulation of positive reviews and the building of a positive brand image. A single review won’t “get the job done.” They can help, but only when everything else is working. On the other hand, they’re essential for building brand awareness among consumers. In other words, they’re important, very important, but in a different way than many manufacturers imagine.

‖ The first order for the US market waiting for a pick up in front of the company’s headquarters • photo courtesy of J.Sikora

Good reviews help strengthen the brand and draw the attention of distributors, making it appealing to them. They also give them tools to promote it. Our first reviews helped us build our brand in exactly this way. Since they all appeared in influential and well-known publications - in print, “Stereophile” and “The Absolute Sound,” and online, including you at “High Fidelity” - they were able to reach a global audience. So: reviews translate into sales, but not the way people think and not to the extent people think. And yet they are essential.

WOJTEK • Do reviews have any influence on a designer or his choices?

JANUSZ • To be honest, not really. When we sent the turntables in for review, we were sending a finished product - the result of my careful consideration of how they should sound. With the Aspire model, it was the result of how Robert and Adam envisioned it, since they were the ones who designed it. Besides, the reviews are all completely different. Some focus solely on sound, some are very technical, and others strike a balance between the two. So it’s hard to find a common thread among them.

ROBERT • Tests of various types are very important because, for the audiophile reader, they are something like a panoramic window, rather than a small peephole. The reader can learn about how a turntable sounds and how it’s built, examine it from various angles, and form their own opinion. It’s the body of reviews that matters, not each one individually. A single review, taken out of context, is downright suspicious.

‖ J.SIKORA Pt. 2: tonearms » 2018-2026

WOJTEK • So now we have a general idea of how turntables came into your lives, and yet it’s the tonearms that have become your trademark, since they’re completely one-of-a-kind. How did that happen?

JANUSZ • The development of the tonearms was driven by circumstances; I had never designed them before. This was back when Franc Kuzma stopped selling tonearms from his top-of-the-line series to outside manufacturers, reserving them exclusively for himself and his distributors.

ROBERT • At first, there was no need to have our own tonearms, since we had access to Kuzma’s great tonearms. We have great respect for this Slovenian designer. However, as the company grows, the need arises to offer a complete package - that is, a turntable with a tonearm. So this circumstance - no access to Kuzma’s tonearms - accelerated our decision that would have had to be made sooner or later anyway.

‖ Washington 2022 – the American premiere of the KV12 Max tonearm • photo courtesy of J.Sikora

JANUSZ • From the very beginning, I knew that if I were to design a tonearm, it would have to be different from anything else on the market. That’s why I chose Kevlar for the tube. Remember what I said about wood - Kevlar, when combined with other materials, has excellent physical properties, unlike wood or even metal or carbon fiber.

The idea came from observation. Once, back in the pre-J.Sikora days, I was visiting Marcin Lewy. On his coffee table lay a driver from the JMLab Pointsource. I picked it up it seemed incredibly light to me. When I let it go, it fell like a leaf. Then Marcin flipped it over and stood on it - and it didn’t bend. I liked it. Years later, I recalled that visit and already had a ready-made idea for a stiff, rigid, yet lightweight tonearm tube.

The difficulty lies in the fact that Kevlar braiding is made from a flat material that frays and is very unpleasant to work with. This is also, among other reasons, why speaker manufacturers stopped using it. Our tonearms are also difficult to manufacture - they consist of 2.5 turns of braided Kevlar at their thickness, with foam in the center. And only the combination of the braided Kevlar, resin, and foam gave us what we wanted. The tubes are made by one of our employees, someone who has been involved in the process from the very beginning and knows exactly how to do it. It took him quite a while to get it right, but he figured it out on his own - it took over half a year, and only one out of every ten attempts was successful.

And the expectations for its performance were huge…

When I first mounted the tonearm and played the first record, I knew that this was something special.

ROBERT • Dad is downplaying his role again when he should emphasize it more strongly. After all, the tube itself, though crucial, is just a small part of a complex system. The use of particular, carefully selected materials in its base, in the bearing’s bed, and the choice of foam - all of that are the results of hard work and the designer’s sensibility. Dad sat for hours, selecting oils, surfaces, channel depths, and so on.

It was a long and complex process. For me, it was a real blessing to be given a wonderful gift to promote and sell -something that no one else had.

JANUSZ • And you had your doubts, remember? When we unveiled our first tonearm, the KV12, at the Audio Video Show in Warsaw in November 2018, you were still checking to make sure that no one else in the world had used Kevlar before. And it wasn’t until Michael Fremer (then editor of “Stereophile” magazine, now “The Absolute Sound” - ed.) came to us and confirmed that this was the very first time this material had been used in tonearms that the pressure finally lifted…

ROBERT • Three elements played a role in the arm. Kevlar is the most important of them, both in terms of performance and marketing, but it’s important to remember that the tube itself, not to mention the other components, is made up of three materials: fiber, foam, and resin. And it was precisely in choosing these materials that my dad really hit the nail on the head. But that’s also why the yellow color sets us apart - it’s something only we have.

WOJTEK • Yet some preferred the black version…

ROBERT • It’s true, some 5–10% of our tonearms are sold with the black finish. It’s a matter of individual taste or preference.

WOJTEK • Your lineup included 12” and 9” arms. Did you even think about developing a 14” version, as Kuzma did?

ROBERT • It doesn’t make much sense with uni-pivot designs. However, we're working on new arms with a gimbal suspension, and who knows what will come of that… We'll have to wait and see. For now, we're still in the middle of the Aspire model promotion.

‖ Axpona 2025 and Michael Fremer at the American premiere of the Aspire • photo courtesy of J.Sikora

‖ J.SIKORA Pt. 3: Aspire » 2022

WOJTEK • That led us to something that symbolized a change in the company - the Aspire was the first turntable that Robert and Adam designed entirely on their own. When you were designing the tonearm, did you have in mind that Robert would be running the company on his own?

JANUSZ • I’d had that belief long before. I’d been thinking about it for several years before Aspire, and sometime around 2020, the change was certain. Robert completed his last commission for railings back then.

ROBERT • What’s important to me about this succession process is that at a certain point I was very scared and feared it wouldn’t work out. I knew my dad’s health wasn’t great, and that he’d have to take on more responsibilities at home than before because of my mom’s serious illness. But I was also aware that if I was going to commit 200% to this, I would have to find someone I could rely on, someone who would help me and complement my strengths.

That person turned out to be Adam. But even then, with that in mind, I didn’t think his role would be so important, so crucial to the success of this business handover. It’s something that allowed us to organize everything our own way. It’s not that Adam replaced my father in our partnership - they have completely different skill sets. But it was thanks to him that I regained my faith that this was even possible. It was thanks to him that I regained my sense of confidence.

It was only by working with Adam that I was able to build a new model for how the company operates - without my dad - together with the other employees. We’ve organized a network of local partners that Adam found, established relationships with our employees - whom Adam manages - and we’ve reached a point where we can design new products together.

WOJTEK • What year was that?

ADAM • It was early 2022. After more than half a year of wondering whether to go for it, I finally said “yes” to Robert :) and in January 2022 we started working together. My wife strongly encouraged me to do this; she could see how much I was struggling at the publishing house. Robert and I have known each other for many years, since the early ’90s, and Robert was my best man at my wedding, so she knew exactly who we were talking about.

ROBERT • For me, the most important thing was that I could trust Adam. And he’s been an audiophile for years, which was also important. You can learn anything, but if you don’t have a certain something inside you, even the best skills won’t help.

‖ Axpona 2025 – the American Aspire premiere. The photo shows two key figures in the brand’s global expansion: on the left, Jeff Fox - J. Sikora’s U.S. distributor; on the right, Simon Chen - the brand’s Singapore distributor and Asia coordinator • photo courtesy of J.Sikora

ADAM • When Robert first asked me to work for him, I wasn’t at all eager to do so, and he had to work hard to convince me. I simply didn’t believe I could contribute anything to a company like that, which was already well-known at the time. It wasn’t until after the 2022 Munich High End Show that I started to think about it seriously. And even then, when I started working with Robert, I had second thoughts five times. I wasn’t sure how I could be useful to them or if I could handle it… It was only after the Munich show that I felt for the first time that this was where I belonged.

ROBERT • Everything that came before serves as the foundation; without it, we wouldn’t exist. However, since we’ve been working with Adam, the growth in brand recognition and sales has been incredible. Let’s remember that the growth of a company like J. Sikora isn’t linear - it’s more exponential.

WOJTEK • Aspire is a result of your cooperation – did you really need such an inexpensive turntable?

ROBERT • The Aspire turned out to be incredibly necessary, more so than anyone could have imagined. It’s our bestseller and, in terms of numbers, has doubled the sales of all our other models over the past year. You can cut this part out if you want :), but my father was strongly opposed to creating a model cheaper than the Initial. He didn’t really believe that such an affordable - by high-end standards - turntable could be produced and that it could perform at the sufficiently high level to which the J.Sikora brand had accustomed its customers.

That’s why Adam and I built it in secret; Dad didn’t find out about it until it was already finished. But as it turned out, he helped us even in this case. We were having problems with motor vibrations. Dad came over, took a look, listened, and pointed out exactly what needed to be done - and it worked right away… In any case, the demand for this model was enormous. We knew that, but Dad was still stuck in the high-end mindset. I already understood back then that brands that don’t release products regularly die out.

JANUSZ • I was wary of such an inexpensive model, because I didn’t believe it was possible to make something as good as our expensive turntables for that price. And sound is the only thing that interests me. It turned out that they’d come up with something that came dangerously close to the Initial, yet was much cheaper.

‖ Janusz (dot) Sikora himself

ROBERT • If you had asked me before 2020 whether the Aspire could be built, I would have said no! If Adam hadn’t made all those connections, if we hadn’t had all those machines, if we hadn’t known everything we know, it wouldn’t have been possible. And now - it is. And even so, we didn’t expect such a huge success.

Let’s not forget that the Aspire arm, which forms a complete unit with the turntable, in its final, production form was completed just two weeks before your review in “High Fidelity.” Your publication was the first to review this product as a complete system. It was Adam who found the solution - replacing Kevlar with carbon fiber - but incorporating components from our high-end tonearms. And suddenly - an explosion of interest. Over the next year, the Aspire appeared at every major audio show. The turntable was showcased at 22 exhibitions around the world - from Toronto to Washington, D.C., across nearly all of Europe, to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Shanghai, and Taipei, from which we’ve just returned.

JANUSZ • I didn’t believe in this product, but I was wrong. In my opinion it is truly great.

ROBERT • I’m going to say something a bit lofty, but I truly believe it: it is people who are the foundation of success. It was the team - us and our employees - who created this project, not just Adam and me. Everyone in our company contributed to it. Take away any one element, and the whole thing falls apart. Someone once wrote to us on Facebook that, looking at Adam, they were certain this was a company that employees identify with - and that’s something no salary can buy. ●