Victrola Stream Carbon

Verdict

There’s no arguing with the comfort or wi-fi effectiveness of the Victrola Stream Carbon – however its general sound high quality falls fractionally brief.

Introduction

‘Works with Sonos’ just isn’t, I think about, a simple or cheap standing to realize. But it surely’s a badge the Victrola Stream Carbon is entitled to put on – and it means this file participant is able to wirelessly stream your vinyl assortment to your Sonos wi-fi speaker system simply as simply as you stream music out of your smartphone. 

This sort of performance doesn’t come particularly low cost, although – so does it make monetary, in addition to sonic, sense?

The Victrola Stream Carbon is on sale in the UK priced at £899. In the US it’s a barely extra palatable $799, whereas in Australia you’re taking a look at AU$1199 or one thing fairly prefer it.

It goes with out saying that is correct cash for a turntable, and lots of correct manufacturers – Professional-Ject, Rega and Technics, to call however three – have a equally priced and really well-regarded various with which to tempt you. However none of them has a feature-set like this one…

Design

• Good normal of construct and end
• Low-profile platter and dirt cowl
• Appears, within the closing evaluation, identical to a file participant

No two methods about it, the Stream Carbon is a properly designed and handsome machine. Clearly it seems to be precisely like a turntable – however inside that there are some very agreeable touches. 

The veneered MDF plinth with its aluminium front-plate, for instance, is elegantly curved at its left and proper edges. Regardless of the deck being simply 109mm tall, Victrola has managed to place the platter in a recess – so when a recording is popping, it sits very near the highest of the plinth certainly. It’s equipped with a equally low-profile dust-cover to be used solely when the Stream Carbon just isn’t in use. It sits virtually flush to the platter and has a bump at one finish as a way to clear the tonearm. 

Construct high quality is greater than sufficient. There’s just a little extra play within the massive, illuminated push/flip management dial on the finish of the fascia, it’s true – however in each different respect the Victrola feels as sturdy as its value calls for, and appears constructed to final for the lengthy haul.

Options

• Belt-driven 33.3/45rpm design
• Integrates with the Sonos app
• ‘At all times on’ phono stage

Among the Stream Carbon’s options are precisely what you’d anticipate from a fairly dear turntable, and a few are most positively not. In all probability greatest to start out with the usual stuff…

The Victrola is a belt-drive design that may function at each 33.3 and 45rpm – speed-change is just a matter of turning just a little knob on the fringe of the turntable’s prime floor. The 225mm tonearm is a straight, carbon-fibre design – the headshell attaches utilizing a bayonet becoming and comes pre-fitted with an Ortofon Crimson 2M cartridge. 

The Victrola management app encompasses a ten-step set-up information, and in all honesty it couldn’t be any easier: connect the headshell, slip on the counterweight and screw it down – and also you’re just about there. There’s an anti-skate management by the tonearm raise, and that’s concerning the extent of the set-up that’s required. It’s a pleasant and simple course of.

From right here, although, the Stream Carbon turns into a somewhat extra particular person proposition. 

There’s just a little recess on the rear of the plinth the place the Victrola retains its bodily connections. There’s an enter for mains energy, naturally, and a pair of stereo RCA sockets for connecting the turntable to an amplifier or powered speaker. Keep in mind, although, that the Stream Carbon outputs at line stage – its built-in phono stage is at all times on, which implies it would bodily hook up with just about any system. And there’s additionally an Ethernet socket, which it’s secure to say you have a tendency to not see on file gamers all that a lot.

The Victrola has Wi-Fi in-built, too. It’s a licensed Works with Sonos product, after all – which implies that when you’ve used its app to get it onto the identical Wi-Fi community as your Sonos speaker(s), it integrates into the Sonos management app as a supply.

And from there, it could actually stream wirelessly to your Sonos speaker or group of audio system, seamlessly and stably and with little or no effort required by the person. Clearly, some analogue-to-digital conversion is happening earlier than the data will get to your speaker – however the kind and normal of digital file the Victrola sends just isn’t data I’m get together to.  

The management dial on the entrance has an illuminated part that glows in several colors to point that energy is on, that pairing to a Sonos system is offered and that pairing has been achieved. After that, it features as a quantity management. And the platter has an automated begin/cease mechanism that’s activated as soon as the tonearm is moved to above the platter or taken away once more. 

Sound High quality

• Large, detailed and fairly spacious sound
• Removed from probably the most engaged or partaking pay attention
• Sounds higher when used wirelessly 

The Stream Carbon takes no time in any respect to arrange, completes its handshake along with your Sonos system with out alarms, and is totally secure in its wi-fi connectivity from there on out. So far as the comfort side of the specification is anxious, Victrola has completely nailed it.

Throughout the course of this check, the turntable streams to a Sonos Period 300 speaker, a Sonos Arc soundbar, and is hardwired to a Roksan stereo amplifier related to Acoustic Power loudspeakers. Whereas there are discernible variations in the way in which it performs relying on the tactic of output, its broad traits stay just about the identical. And regardless of if it’s enjoying a decades-old copy of Kimono My Home by Sparks or a brand-new reissue of De La Soul’s 3 Ft Excessive and Rising, the Victrola goes about issues in the identical means.   

It’s a chunky, full-bore pay attention that by no means sounds lower than weighty. There’s appreciable low-frequency presence in all circumstances, a good quantity of element retained and revealed, and a reasonably even-handed means with tonality that lets it sound constant from the highest of the frequency vary to the underside. Consistency is seldom a foul trait in audio gear, and if the Stream Carbon is something it’s constant.

Regardless of the low-end substance, bass sounds are fairly swift and managed. Rhythmic expression is first rate, momentum is offered when required, and there’s truthful variation on the backside finish too. The element ranges are simply as excessive within the midrange, and there’s sufficient house on the soundstage for a singer to do their factor with out seeming crowded. On the prime of the frequency vary there’s just a little chunk and shine, although in final phrases the treble sounds just a little rolled off and cautious.

What the Stream Carbon can’t actually muster, although, is any sense of depth or engagement. It’s a really matter-of-fact sound the Victrola presents, with not a lot in the way in which of dynamic expression. No matter occurs in a recording occurs at a really comparable stage of magnitude all through, and there’s no sense of obtainable headroom if the going will get significantly rowdy. 

Irrespective of that everyone knows the Sparks songs have moments of hushed calm and eye-popping assault – the Stream Carbon doesn’t actually differentiate. Its presentation reaches a plateau instantly, and it’s reluctant within the excessive to maneuver from there.

All the above pertains to the way in which the turntable sounds when it’s wirelessly streaming to a Sonos speaker. When it’s hard-wired to a stereo amplifier, shortcomings within the built-in phono amplification that’s on board the Stream Carbon imply it doesn’t create fairly as convincing a soundstage when heard this manner, and it sounds somewhat extra two-dimensional than it does when utilizing Bluetooth as a connection. If the Victrola’s phono stage had been defeatable, it’s potential it could be a extra partaking pay attention when heard by a standard hi-fi system.  

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Sustainability

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As a part of this mission, at any time when we overview a product we ship the corporate a collection of questions to assist us gauge and make clear the influence the machine has on the atmosphere.

We presently haven’t acquired solutions to the questions on this product, however will replace this web page the second we do. You’ll be able to see an in depth breakdown of the questions we ask and why in our sustainability data web page.