Turntable Reviews

Döhmann Helix One Mk.2 turntable

Michael Fremer Mar 24, 2020 First Published: Mar 24, 2020

Designing and building a turntable isn't all that difficult. All that matters is in plain sight: Start with a base of wood, MDF, or acrylic; add some isolation "feet" for it to rest upon, and a spindle bearing such as any competent machine shop can fabricate, topped by a platter of acrylic or aluminum or suchlike. The motor can be an off-the-shelf AC synchronous type, fed directly by the electricity from a wall socket.

Analog Corner Phono Cartridge Reviews Tonearm Reviews Turntable Reviews

Analog Corner #295: Rega Planar 10 turntable, RB3000 tonearm, Apheta 3 phono cartridge

Michael Fremer Feb 18, 2020 First Published: Mar 01, 2020

Lately it seems that the more Rega charges for one of its turntables, the less you getand from Rega's performance perspective that's a good thing.

While some turntable designs pile on the mass, hoping to tame resonances and better isolate the record from the outside world, Rega has long advocated ultralow-mass designs. What's up with that?

Historical J. Gordon Holt Turntable Reviews

Garrard 301 & Thorens TD 124 turntables

J. Gordon Holt Sep 05, 2019 First Published: Mar 01, 1963

An editorial note: We recently republished Stereophile founder J. Gordon Holt's 1966 review of the Swiss Thorens TD-150AB turntable. This was the first high-end 'table I bought after leaving university and earning a wage. But as good as I felt the TD-150AB to be, with its belt drive and sprung suspension, it was sonically overshadowed both by Thorens's TD 124 turntable and by the English Garrard 301 turntable.

Turntable Reviews

TechDAS Air Force V turntable

Michael Fremer Aug 20, 2019 First Published: Aug 20, 2019

Unless a truly budget-priced Air Force model is in the works, the TechDAS turntable lineup now seems complete: The recently introduced Air Force Zero ($450,000) is at the top, and the "affordable" Air Force V ($19,500) is at the bottom. The Air Force One, Two, and III turntables, all available in both standard and Premium versions, sit in the costly middle.

There's no Air Force IV because in East Asia that number is considered bad luckwhich also explains why Japanese golfers shout "Six!" when someone hooks a shot into an adjacent fairway (joke alert).

Tonearm Reviews Turntable Reviews

HiFiction Thales TTT-Slim II turntable & Simplicity II tonearm

Art Dudley Aug 01, 2019 First Published: Aug 01, 2019

Money, that unreliable buyer of happiness, has at times proven effective at delivering good sound. It can buy other things, as well: Audiophiles can swap cash for products that function as objets d'art, as status symbols, or even as canny investments.

Butdo you think money can buy peace of mind for the audio enthusiast who frets over binding voice-coils, leaking capacitors, drifting resistor values, oxidizing connectors, aging or incorrectly biased tubes, and that most pernicious worry of all, distortion and premature record wear from incorrectly aligned phono cartridges? Sadly, most of those neuroses, some quite reasonable, remain unaddressed by cash almighty.

Historical J. Gordon Holt Turntable Reviews

Thorens TD-150AB turntable and tonearm

J. Gordon Holt Jul 11, 2019 First Published: Dec 01, 1966

This is an integrated arm-and-turntable unit using single-belt drive from a stepped motor pulley to an inside platter (under the main one), and having a three-point suspension similar to that in the AR turntable for isolation from acoustic feedback and floorborne vibrations. Speed change is accomplished by a two-pronged "fork" which, actuated by the speed selector knob, throws the belt from one step of the motor pulley to the other. The motor is a special synchronous type that is actually two motors in a single case. Their speed is determined by the frequency of the AC supply, so there is no speed adjustment.

Turntable Reviews

Kuzma Stabi R turntable

Ken Micallef Jun 18, 2019 First Published: Jun 18, 2019

I've been the proud owner of a Kuzma Stabi S turntable and Stogi S tonearm since 2001. The combination was an impulse purchase, made after seeing and hearing it in action at Stereophile's Home Entertainment Show at the New York Hilton. Even under unruly show conditions, the Kuzma player created rock-solid images and played music with serious jump factor. With its matte brass finish, tubular bell looks, and overtly industrial design, the Slovenian-made Stabi S/Stogi S was steampunk before steampunk. Looking back, it was one of my best-ever audio purchases.

Turntable Reviews

Merrill-Williams R.E.A.L. 101.3 turntable

Art Dudley Jul 19, 2018 First Published: Jul 19, 2018

Record players and the average consumer enjoy an on-again/off-again relationshiphappily, at this moment in time, it is very much onbut to high-end audio enthusiasts, the turntable has endured as an object of near-talismanic importance. I think that's not only because the turntable continues to give us so much pleasure, but also because it seems so understandableat its simplest, it's just a motor and a rotatable platter, attached to a board that also has some provisions for fastening a tonearm. End of story. Who among us has not, at one time or another, considered the lot of the turntable designer and thought, I could do that?

Tonearm Reviews Turntable Reviews

Kuzma Stabi turntable & Stogi tonearm

Guy Lemcoe Dec 14, 2017 First Published: May 01, 1995

I first learned of the Kuzma Stogi at the 1993 Winter CES in Las Vegas. In VPI's room at the Sahara, a portly, black tonearm was sitting proudly atop the new VPI TNT Series 3 turntable. Pointing straight at me from the center of its massive, exceptionally stout frame was a tapered armtube the diameter of a swollen thumb. The fact that this unknown (to me) tonearm was chosen to sit atop a turntable as respected as the TNT told me I was looking at a serious new product. VPI's Harry Weisfeld was standing nearby, beaming as usual, to answer the barrage of questions that sprang from my lips as I leaned over for a closer inspection. Who? What? Where? When? Why? How much?

Turntable Reviews

VPI Prime Scout turntable

Art Dudley Sep 19, 2017 First Published: Sep 19, 2017

We got our wish. Phonograph ownership is once again depicted as commonplace, even hip, in popular films, TV shows, and ads for other products. Turntables and LP jackets show up in photos in Elle Decor and Vanity Fair. New LPs are sold in stores in nice neighborhoods, and in malls with Cinnabon franchises and J.Crew stores. A shockingly high percentage of new record releases in which normal people are interested, and a few in which they are not, are now available on vinyl. For the first time in decades, I receive occasional gifts of new LPspresumably because they're once again easy for nonenthusiasts to find and to buyand the very few CDs I've received in the past few years have been homemade.