The real kicker, however, is that after 50 years of refinement, those old LPs can now sound better than ever. And many listeners argue that, on a gut level, vinyl can deliver an experience superior to that of CD. Of course, when CDs first came out, we marveled at what we didn't hear — the ticks, pops, and mistracking — but we failed to appreciate what we were losing along with the noise. Whether you call it a coloration or a euphony, many listeners find that LPs connect with them emotionally in a way that CDs can't.
To get a feel for what today's crop of turntables, tonearms, and phono cartridges can deliver from LPs, I checked out a top pick at each of three price levels: a good-quality but affordable rig that's easy to set up and get running, a more ambitious offering for those who take their vinyl quite seriously, and a real dream machine that pushes the boundaries of what can be extracted from a squiggly little black groove.
Pro-Ject
Debut III / Ortofon OM-5E
The Czech-built Debut III comes packaged as a complete system that's pretty much ready to go, with the tonearm and an Ortofon OM-5E moving-magnet phono cartridge installed and aligned. The OM-5E normally sells separately for about $50, and a nice feature is that you can upgrade it to one of the more senior members of the OM range in just a few seconds by swapping out the stylus. The supplied OM-5 stylus is a standard elliptical, while the OM-10, 20, and 30 styli offer progressively more refined profiles that should result in even better tracking and high-frequency detail.
For maximum value, the standard-model turntable ($299) comes in a rather utilitarian matte-black finish, but for an extra $30 you can get one of the snazzy, painted versions. Mine came in a striking fire-engine red, but a range of other bold colors is available. This is also the only one of our three turntables to include a dust cover.
For a budget model, the Debut III is impressive in both its overall look and its fit and finish. You can tell that everything has been carefully thought out — for example, from the way the motor is suspended on a rubber belt to reduce vibration transfer into the plinth — and when you consider nice little features like the azimuth adjustment on the tonearm, it's clear that the designers knew how to get the most from a fairly simple design. At 14 pounds, it's also quite substantially built, with a 3-pound steel platter to help smooth out any speed fluctuations.
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The Short Form |
| Price $329 (AS TESTED) / sumikoaudio.net / 510-843-4500 |
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Snapshot
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| A great-sounding, affordable, yet easy-to-live-with turntable/cartridge combo that will bring your forgotten LP collection back to life. |
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Plus
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| •Easy out-of-the-box setup •No-excuses-needed performance •Easily upgradable cartridge |
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Minus
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| •Plain industrial design won’t make the local audiophiles jealous •Changing speeds requires lifting platter |
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Key Features
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| •Installed aluminum arm, Ortofon cartridge •Dust cover •Finish: red, silver, green, yellow, white, blue, piano black •16.5 x 13.3 x 4.5 in; 14 lb |
Setup of a Debut III is straightforward, given its pre-installed arm and cartridge, but there are still a few simple tasks. These include removing some screws that hold down the motor, putting on the platter and felt mat, balancing the arm, and hanging the anti-skating weight. I double-checked the cartridge alignment using my own tools and found it spot-on. Happily, the people at the factory are paying attention!
That done, I ran-in the cartridge for a while using one of the clever continuous (or "locked") grooves on the Sweeper test disc from Cardas Audio. Then I cleaned the stylus and sat down for a listen.
PERFORMANCE
When I cued up the Barry Reynolds album I Scare Myself (find that on CD!), it was soon clear that the Debut III was getting all of the basics right. The sound was dynamic and open, and the rhythms bounced along while driving the pace of the music.
Contrary to popular thinking, the better the turntable and cartridge, the lower the surface noise — and the Debut III was a case in point, playing music over an impressively quiet background. The OM-5E stylus was a good tracker, too, sailing through my tough-to-play choral records effortlessly, although a stylus upgrade would likely deliver a little additional refinement.
BOTTOM LINE
Perhaps the most important thing I can say about the Pro-Ject Debut III/Ortofon OM-5E combo is that its sound doesn't include any objectionable unpleasantness, and its few shortcomings are pretty much sins of omission. That's a strong recommendation at this price. If you just want to enjoy your old record collection again, the Debut III is a tremendous bargain.
Roksan
Radius5 / Nima / Corus Black
With its clear acrylic chassis and translucent platter, the styling is striking indeed, although more conventional-looking, wood-veneer finishes are available for the somewhat less adventurous. The Radius5 ($1,495) comes with a premounted unipivot Roksan tonearm called the Nima, and this pairing can also be purchased bundled with a Roksan Corus Black moving-magnet phono cartridge ($395) to form a complete player.
As with the Pro-Ject Debut III, operation is totally manual, and you change the speed to 45 rpm by moving the belt to a different groove on the motor pulley — although here, everything is out in the open, making it a snap.
The Corus Black cartridge is based on a well-established moving-magnet design from Goldring. It uses a super-fineline stylus profile called a Gyger II and, as such, really benefits from extra-careful alignment. The lightweight Nima arm suits this cartridge well, and given sufficient fine-tuning, the pairing can extract a lot of music from your LPs.
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The Short Form |
| Price $1,890 (AS TESTED) / mayaudio.com / 800-554-4517 |
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Snapshot
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| Once optimized, this turntable will draw you into the music and let you experience your records like never before. |
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Plus
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| •Digs tons of information from the grooves •Well-balanced sonic performance •NYC loft-ready design |
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Minus
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| •Careful tweaking of arm/cartridge combo required to maximize performance •Needs solid floor or wall shelf for isolation |
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Key Features
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| •Fully adjustable aluminum unipivot arm •Optional Corus Black MM cartridge •Finish: acrylic, lacquered walnut or maple veneer •15.8 x 13.8 x 6 in; 15.5 lb |
I found that the undamped Nima arm makes the Radius5 pretty sensitive to bouncy floors, so in many rooms a wall-mounted shelf will be a wise move. Also, unlike the Debut III, the Radius5 does not arrive with its cartridge pre-installed, and this task is left up to you (or your retailer) to complete. Compounding the difficulty, I found that (like many other unipivot arms) the Nima is especially fiddly, requiring careful adjustment of the eccentrically mounted counterweight to optimize both the tracking force and the azimuth. The good news in all of this is that the arm does come with clear and detailed instructions, along with all of the tools required to get the job done (including a stylus pressure gauge).
PERFORMANCE
As with the Debut III, I gave the Radius5's cartridge some time on the Cardas Sweeper record to bed it in prior to listening. Then, once everything was optimized, I went back to replay some of the same reference records.
Rock-steady pitch has always been a Roksan hallmark, and the Radius5 didn't disappoint. One favorite LP for checking this quality is a solo piano recital by Youri Egorov recorded at Carnegie Hall in 1978. I've encountered turntables that would "wow" audibly because of the increased drag of the stylus when Egorov bangs out an fff chord, but with the Radius5 the piano always sounded perfectly in tune.
This is a quick- and light-sounding turntable, with plenty of what British audio junkies call PRaT — pace, rhythm, and timing. The sound is particularly well resolved through the critical midrange, with finely focused sonic images and a spacious, dimensional soundstage. Bass is nimble — although on a playback system with truly extended deep bass, you'll find that it can't quite match the ultimate power and slam of some more ambitious turntable designs.
BOTTOM LINE
It does take some work to get the most from Roksan's Radius5. But at its best, this turntable's greatest strengths are in those performance characteristics that really count. It's lively and dynamic, and it allows you to concentrate on the music rather than the system.
V.Y.G.E.R.
Baltic M / SME Model 312 / Sumiko Pearwood
One thing is certain, though: The M in Baltic M stands for magnetic. This model's suspension consists of a set of opposing magnets set into each footer, sufficient to lift the Baltic's not inconsiderable 55-pound weight so that the turntable is essentially floating on air. The motor sits separately outside of this floating assembly, meaning that the only possible way that motor noise can get to the turntable is through the drive belt.
The bigger models from V.Y.G.E.R. use a linear-tracking, air-bearing tonearm of the company's own design. But for the Baltic, V.Y.G.E.R. has turned to one of the most highly respected and long-established British audio manufacturers and mated the turntable with SME's Model 312, the company's latest 12-inch tonearm. By going with an arm longer than the standard 9 inches, you reduce the amount of tracing error and potential distortion — but not every turntable has the extra real estate needed to make it fit. Fortunately, this isn't a problem for the massive Baltic M.
To round out the package, I mounted a Sumiko Pearwood Celebration II low-output moving-coil phono cartridge ($2,000). Although its shape and wood-clad body bring to mind classic cartridges from the likes of Koetsu and Kiseki, the Pearwood is a bang-up-to-date modern design, boasting an alnico magnet-based generator to deliver a somewhat higher than usual 0.5-millivolt output. Normally, a cartridge of this caliber will use an exotic stylus profile that requires a highly exacting setup to maximize its performance. Sumiko, however, realized that this is an unrealistic expectation for most users and instead opted for a less demanding yet still very high-quality elliptical profile.
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The Short Form |
| Price $9,800 (AS TESTED) / gttgroup.com / 908-850-5955 |
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Snapshot
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| Stunning industrial design, massive build, and big, luxurious sound make this combo a keeper. |
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Plus
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| •A true analog-statement system, both sonically and visually •Amazingly easy to set up •Very well isolated from external vibration •Ships with high-quality 12-inch tonearm |
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Minus
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| •Let's face it: It's not exactly cheap |
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Key Features
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| •SME Model 312 12-inch tonearm •Aircraft-grade aluminum body with fully-floating magnetic suspension •Finish: metallic anthracite, blue, red, silver •20 x 19 x 6 in; approximately 55 lb |
With its magnetic suspension, the Baltic M was far less sensitive about its supporting structure than the two smaller turntables in this roundup, but I still used a massive VPI stand to get the best possible performance. As before, I carefully ran-in the cartridge and optimized the alignment before doing any critical listening.
PERFORMANCE
Right from the outset, it was clear that the Baltic M could play music with a sense of scale and dimensionality that the more affordable models could never quite match. With a well-recorded orchestral LP such as Erich Gruenberg's fine recording of the Beethoven Violin Concerto on Chandos, the soundstage was reproduced with an immense sense of space, yet at the same time the soloist remained focused and well proportioned. There was always a reassuring solidity to the sound, along with an ability to handle really large dynamic swings with ease.
With its highly damped and massive 17-pound platter, partnered by the critically damped SME tonearm, the Baltic M presents music over a spookily quiet background, and this enables you to hear tiny low-level details that would otherwise be buried. I think Sumiko's decision to stay away from a finicky stylus for the Pearwood cartridge was a good one, as the amount of fine detail it could extract was never in question. Tracking ability was also exceptional, something that can't be said for some other low-output moving-coil cartridges.
BOTTOM LINE
Overall, the V.Y.G.E.R. Baltic M presents music with a big, powerful, and luxuriant sound. Likening it to another sort of voyager, I would call it a Rolls Royce Phantom next to the Roksan Radius5's Lotus Exige and the Pro-Ject Debut III's VW GTI.
If you're hankering to extract a little more from your grooves and don't mind dealing with a more complex setup, Roksan's Radius5 with its Corus Black tonearm is a good choice. This 'table's attractive, eye-catching design is a pleasure to gaze upon, and its exceptional pitch and rhythmic abilities get right to the essence of the music in a way that will bring you hours of listening pleasure.
For the true connoisseur, the V.Y.G.E.R. Baltic M with the SME Model 312 tonearm and the Sumiko Pearwood Celebration II cartridge, while much more expensive, shows what can be achieved when cost isn't a restriction. Its stunning industrial design and fine construction make a great impression, and its big, powerful sound will perfectly complement a top-notch system.
Now, more than any time in the last 20 years, people are rediscovering their favorite music through good old-fashioned LPs, and perhaps we can put to rest the notion that these records appeal only to the lunatic-fringe audiophile or the terminally trendy hipster. If you're ready to take the journey, any of these turntables will open the door to your dusty LP collection and the many new records being issued today, or open a new window of transparency on the records you may already be listening to. All that's left is for you to decide how far you want to go, and then head out for a spin.
Phono Preamps
Instead, connecting a turntable to your system these days often means routing the signal through an additional signal amplifier, called a phono stage or preamp, before sending it to any available line-level input on your receiver or preamplifier. This provides the cartridge with the additional amplification and equalization needed to make it match your other sources.
Phono cartridges come in two basic flavors: the so-called high-output moving-magnet (MM) types that have an output around 3 millivolts and the more exotic low-output moving-coil (MC) models with an output that's typically about one-tenth as strong.
While most built-in phono inputs are designed to handle only high-output cartridges, many high-quality outboard phono stages have a switch to engage additional gain for low-output pickups.
To simplify all of this, here are three phono stages that would make excellent matches for the turntables in our roundup:
• For the Pro-Ject, the company's own Phono Box II ($119) is an obvious choice, handling both high-output MM and low-output MC cartridges. It provides a good match for the supplied cartridge, with plenty of scope for cartridge upgrades down the road.
• For the Roksan, I chose the Creek Audio OBH-15 ($450), the latest in a long-running series of well-respected phono stages from that company. It also offers both MM and MC gain settings, making it easy to switch to a moving-coil cartridge in the future.
• For the V.Y.G.E.R., the Moon LP5.3 ($1,400) from the fine Canadian manufacturer Simaudio would be a good choice. In addition to having four different gain settings, the Moon lets you adjust the cartridge-loading (resistance and capacitance) settings to provide a perfect match for your cartridge. It even offers balanced outputs for connection to preamps with the corresponding inputs.
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