Features: Turntable-tonearm

The Absolute Sound review of the Original Live Sovereign S turntable and Agile tonearm that I wrote will soon be published, but before publication, in the embedded video below you'll see what makes this turntable arm/combo special.The combo costs around $25,000 so it's pretty costly but its design features are unique and while I'm not putting up an actual review here, when you see what's going on "under the hood" the design is sure to... Read More

Technics has a turntable problem most turntable manufacturers would be happy to have. The company’s SL-1200 introduced in 1972 and in continuous production until the “death of vinyl” in 2010, only to return to production with the “resurrection of vinyl” in 2016, is iconic. More than 3.5 million were sold and many are still in use.Because it’s iconic and instantly recognizable, Technics wisely chose to maintain the turntable’s oft-copied basic looks and even keep the... Read More

With "retro" industrial design having been a "thing" in audio for the past few years, especially in loudspeakers and receivers, I've been wondering why VPI hasn't stepped up to the audio plate and knocked one out of the nostalgia Ozone Park with a re-imagined vintage VPI turntable (yes I do spend my spare time thinking of such things). Well here it is— a new and improved take on the venerable HW-19, proving there's VPI life beyond... Read More

It’s no secret that with vinyl once again popular, many well-known brands eager to enter or re-enter the turntable market have them manufactured at the same well-established, highly capable Taiwanese factory using familiar looking parts. It doesn’t take an ”eagle eye” to spot the similarities. Other companies, like Canada-based Fluance.com, once an “upstart” but now well-established, do likewise. Most of these turntables are not “branding exercises”, in which a... Read More

Taking a lunch break during a mid 1990’s Consumer Electronics Show, Allen Perkins, then working for turntable manufacturer SOTA and I writing for The Absolute Sound, exited The Riviera Hotel, site of the “high end” exhibits, and took a walk along Las Vegas Boulevard, better known as “The Strip”. The west side of the street then was mostly demolished brick rubble behind chain link fencing. Among the few buildings on that side of the street was the old blue backlit... Read More