Equipment Reviews

U-Turn’s most ambitious and sophisticated turntable yet offers an impressive package of performance-enhancing features starting with a new one piece molded tapered magnesium 220 millimeter effective length, gimbal-bearing tonearm fitted with a pre-installed and aligned nude elliptical stylus Ortofon 2M Blue MM cartridge. The Theory adds electronic speed control that at the turn of a knob lets you change from 33 1/3 to 45rpm . More important than the convenience of it,... Read More

"The last thing I'd want to do is decouple my cartridge from the tonearm's headshell!", I barked at Funk Firm's Arthur Khoubessarian (BSc physics, University of Surrey) at last Spring's High End Munich show as he attempted to introduce me to the Houdini cartridge de-coupler. Everything I've learned and been taught by my mentors is that headshell/cartridge coupling is essential for efficient energy transfer; the goal being to drain it... Read More

A rough definition of “economies of scale” is the cost advantages produced by increased production. The more you produce, the lower the cost per unit, measured by the amount of output per unit of time. Usually this results in either the same product costing less, or a better product for the same cost as a not as good previous one.It's not clear how long it takes to assemble, box and package Pro-Ject’s new X8 Evolution turntable, or how economies of scale work at... Read More

Priced from $99 to $1500, these 5 phono preamplifiers offer fine build quality and sound to match. Equally important: they are from stable companies that will exist when in the future you might need customer support. Of course, there are many others worth noting but we want to avoid a laundry list here. Meanwhile, as in “Miracle on 34th Street”, where Macy’s Santa sent people to Gimbel’s, please visit my “former endeavor” and scroll through the phono preamp reviews.... Read More