Victrola Stream Onyx turntable evaluation: A spin on WiFi hi-fi

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I began testing the Victrola Stream Onyx Works with Sonos turntable the identical method I consider each turntable: selecting an album I do know very nicely, choosing my favourite monitor, clearing my head, and listening. This time, nonetheless, issues took a distinct flip and an atypical flight of stairs. Seconds after the Stream Onyx’s needle hit decades-old wax on the platter in my basement, I heard music enjoying from a very completely different ground. “I Went to Sleep,” a short breezy waltz the Seaside Boys launched in 1969 on the album 20/20, began enjoying on a wise speaker above me in the lounge. I used to be shocked, not as a result of I used to be unaware of this function’s existence, however as a result of Victrola’s spin on wi-fi vinyl playback labored so effortlessly and expressively … if you meet particular necessities indicated within the product’s title and delivered in its efficiency.

The construct

For essentially the most half, the $599 Victrola Stream Onyx appears to be like like several customary turntable, simply with edges a bit extra rounded off. Its matte black plinth appears to be like smooth, its fashionable aesthetic complemented by a silicone slipmat and aluminum tonearm. It’s a solid-feeling 12.13 kilos. And the included mud cowl is a custom-shaped protect that matches instantly above the platter and tonearm moderately than an oblong cover clipping to the again and hovering over your entire file participant.

Victrola opted to outfit the Stream Onyx with the Audio-Technica AT-VM95E cartridge. That is completely positive, although we’d have appreciated to see them go for or supply the Ortofon 2M Red as a substitute. That cartridge, which I’ve auditioned in previous critiques, affords wonderful sonic and monitoring efficiency. It additionally offers a transparent improve path to the higher-end Ortofon 2M Blue by letting you swap out the Elliptical diamond for a Nude Elliptical diamond stylus, increasing the high-frequency response from 20,000 Hz to 25,000 Hz with a single half moderately than having to spend extra to switch a whole cartridge. Nonetheless, the Audio-Technica affords a extremely competent, low-distortion, entry-level Elliptical diamond stylus and you’ll at all times experiment with the six interchangeable styli within the A-T household or get a completely completely different transferring magnet cartridge later for those who want.

A 2-speed, belt-driven, semi-automatic turntable, the Stream Onyx will start spinning a file whenever you transfer its tonearm—with its simply adjustable counterweight—over a file. And it’ll cease the file from spinning when you’ve reached the top of a facet. Nevertheless, this turntable doesn’t have auto-return, that means the tonearm won’t return to its authentic resting place as soon as the music is finished. You’ll have to lift, decrease, and transfer the tonearm by your self, which is made simpler by the turntable’s cue lever, which raises the needle above the album so you may decrease it down on the best spot with precision. A dial on prime of the turntable helps you to swap between 45 and 33 1/3 RPM information, and Victrola contains an adapter so you may play classic 7 inches with no downside.

Flip the turntable round and also you’ll see customary RCA (purple and white) outputs and a grounding peg. There’s additionally a common “figure-eight” energy port. We respect that Victrola opted for this method moderately than an influence twine soldered in as a result of you may swap out the cable for just over $5 if yours will get by accident broken.

Thus far, every thing appears to be like fairly customary … till you discover the Ethernet jack, the primary indication that this turntable is designed to be networked, whether or not by way of cable or WiFi. That’s additionally associated to the turntable’s different eye-catching ingredient: the illuminated management knob on its entrance panel, with a white LED ring that enhances the “Victrola” emblem, which lets you change the quantity and output zone as a result of the Stream Onyx is meant to combine seamlessly with Sonos connected speakers. Sure, you might already broadcast these black circles by wedging a Sonos Port into an present stereo system, however the Stream Onyx is a way more elegant resolution.

The setup

Victrola has been within the enterprise of creating audio tools since 1901, and it’s used the previous 122 years to streamline its turntable setup course of. The Stream Onyx solely took a couple of half-hour from unboxing to organising my first file, together with connecting it to your Sonos ecosystem by way of the Victrola app. Victrola offers written directions, however for those who’re a visible learner like myself, you need to reference the corporate’s unboxing and setup video on the backside of the web page for the Stream Carbon, the Onyx’s extra luxe $799 sibling (which incorporates that covetable Ortofon 2M Pink talked about above). The Stream Onyx comes nearly utterly assembled out of the field, with solely a handful of simple steps wanted to finish the job.

First, I positioned the turntable’s platter on prime of its deck, aligning the spindle beneath with a cutout within the platter. Subsequent, I hooked up a belt that was taped to the highest of the platter onto a spindle beneath. Then I positioned a silicone placemat on prime of the platter and hooked up an adjustable counterweight to the tonearm. The counterweight was the proper weight for this tonearm, so it was pointless to regulate it as soon as it was securely in place.

Lastly, I eliminated the headshell from its packaging and plugged it into the entrance of the tonearm. From there, it was solely a matter of plugging the Stream Onyx into an outlet utilizing the included cable and putting the 45 adapter as an alternative subsequent to the pace choice knob. All of those steps are just like those you’d observe when organising any belt-driven turntable, though the truth that the belt was already on the platter saved a variety of time and frustration.

With the bodily a part of the Stream Onyx all found out, I moved on to organising its digital part. It’s value mentioning that, at this level, the turntable was absolutely purposeful and, with its built-in preamp, may very well be related to a receiver or powered speakers with none points. For those who like the concept of getting a file participant that would play music wirelessly to a number of audio system in numerous rooms, however haven’t picked up any Sonos gear, the Stream Onyx continues to be value contemplating as a way of futureproofing your audio setup and providing you with extra connectivity choices down the road.

Connecting the turntable to a Sonos speaker already on my community was simpler than I initially thought, due to Victrola’s easy—albeit sterile-looking—app, which is offered on each iOS and Android. (The turntable additionally integrates with the Sonos app.) The app immediately acknowledged my turntable and requested me to offer my WiFi password to attach it to my wi-fi community (the Victrola Stream Onyx and your Sonos audio system have to be on the identical community to speak).

As soon as my turntable was added to the community, I may choose the default Sonos speaker it ought to play music from. Each within the app and by urgent the quantity knob in, you may select a gaggle of Sonos audio system to play music concurrently in numerous components of your house or in true stereo. I chosen my Sonos Era 100, and the app let me know my turntable was paired to the speaker so I may instantly begin to play information. The Victrola app additionally permits you to replace the Stream Onyx’s firmware, to see its sign power to a speaker, and it’ll allow you to regulate the latency (lag) between the 2 gadgets. Decrease latency means much less time will elapse between whenever you drop the needle and whenever you hear music. Nonetheless, if the connection between the turntable and speaker is weak, it could reduce out, which is why including a multi-second buffer may very well be helpful.

I by no means skilled any technical difficulties throughout my testing, however my multi-router Eero network helps speeds of as much as 1Gbps, due to my web plan. For those who usually get slower throughput, your greatest guess could also be to arrange the Stream Onyx beside your cable supplier’s modem and join these two gadgets with an Ethernet cable.

The sound

Judging the sound of a turntable might be tough as a result of so many variables can impression it. The album you’re listening to, the actual urgent, its situation, your stereo receiver, your cartridge, the situation of your needle, the floor and damping the place you set your turntable, your speakers, their positioning, and even the dimensions and form of your room all should be thought-about. All that being stated, I had a good time throughout my testing interval with the Victrola Stream Onyx. I listened to a spread album, from the aforementioned authentic urgent of the Seaside Boys album to the current reissue of the Fountains of Wayne compilation Out-of-State Plates.

Victrola’s counterweight supplied sufficient pressure to maintain the needle from skating off a groove even throughout the occasional pop, however by no means dug in so deeply as to wreck the LP. Analog recordings I listened to sounded higher than newer ones recorded digitally and transferred to tape after the blending and mastering phases. I questioned whether or not the area Victrola devoted to wi-fi parts contained in the Stream Onyx would impression its efficiency, however that didn’t appear to matter very a lot.

The largest take a look at was how the identical album sounded when it streamed to the Sonos Era 100 in comparison with when it was instantly related to a pair of bookshelf speakers, on this case Fluance’s Ai61s. Victrola’s app permits you to flip between two modes: “Switching” will solely play music by way of a Sonos speaker even when the turntable is hardwired to an audio system, whereas “Simultaneous” will route audio to each on the similar time. I listened to the identical music on each methods individually and concurrently (the latter was admittedly a cacophonous expertise).

The powered speaker system ended up successful out, however the struggle wasn’t completely honest. The Sonos Period 100 can play music in true stereo due to its twin angled tweeter array, but it surely couldn’t beat the true separation of separate left and proper audio system positioned a few ft other than each other. The drivers on the Ai61s are additionally fairly a bit greater, which allowed me to listen to slightly extra low and high-end. Whereas this matchup deprived the Period 100, the variations in efficiency weren’t as nice as I’d have anticipated. There was some element loss when listening by way of a Sonos speaker, however that might be true when streaming music to any Bluetooth or wi-fi audio tools. Victrola doesn’t present the Stream Onyx’s most bitrate, however the Period 100 can play 16-bit audio at as much as a 48 kHz pattern charge—a constancy WiFi can simply accommodate.

General, the sound popping out of the Sonos Period 100 was extremely pleasing. There was nonetheless a few of that analog “heat” that has extra to do with the best way the albums I listened to had been recorded and mastered than anybody factor within the sign chain. It’s attention-grabbing how the outcomes of this take a look at will change over time had been I to strive the bigger multidirectional Sonos Era 300 or future Sonos upgrades (the Five is beginning to look a bit lengthy within the tooth). The variations between listening to music by way of a standard audio system vs. wirelessly will solely get narrower.

The conclusion

With the introduction of the Victrola Stream Onyx, wi-fi audio has taken one other Borg-like step to assimilate items of the audiophile world—by way of headphones and smart speakers and now turntables. Resistance is futile certainly. The transfer from Bluetooth, an inherently restricted wi-fi streaming customary, to WiFi, which affords much better constancy and stability over a larger vary, is a big sea change.

Sure, the Stream Onyx is barely suitable wirelessly with Sonos audio system, that are costlier than your common Bluetooth party speakers, however this choice ensures a baseline of audio constancy. Relatively than worrying about how the Stream Onyx may sound on hundreds of audio system, Victrola solely has to check it with a handful. And the Sonos dedication to sound high quality underscores the validity of this method. For those who’re open to a closed system and have an LPs listening station however need the liberty to get pleasure from information all through your house, it’s onerous to not see the Victrola Stream Onyx Works with Sonos turntable as the best choice for you proper now.