Turntables, Arms & Cartridges

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Turntables, Arms & Cartridges
Ortofon Vivo Blue (£275)
Ed Selley  |  Sep 06, 2011
An entry level moving coil with many strong sonic qualities As the largest producer of phonograph cartridges in the world, Ortofon (which is Greek for ‘correct sound’) produces a wealth of models and ranges to suit every type of listener, from scratch DJ to discerning audiophile. The Vivo range represents Ortofon’s entry-level, low output moving-coil models, with the Vivo Red (£220) priced just below the Vivo Blue on test here. The extra outlay accounts for improved profiling of the Blue’s nude elliptical stylus which, according to Ortofon’s website, affords a wider frequency range and better tracking ability. The conservative looking casework is made from Lexan DMX, a rigid polycarbonate-based resin which houses coils made from 7N oxygen-free copper wire.
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Turntables, Arms & CartridgesVintage
Philips AF 877 Turntable
Review: Tim Jarman, Lab: Paul Miller  |  Aug 22, 2019
hfnvintageSophisticated styling, touch controls and the promise of all the benefits of direct-drive using a sub-platter driven by a belt. Can this late '70s record player really deliver?

Think of CD players and Philips will be one of the first names to come to mind. This is not necessarily the case when it comes to turntables, even though the company has produced a multitude of models over the years. Its turntable motors could be found in the early Linn LP12 and many other similar designs, yet to most British listeners a complete Philips turntable, like the AF 877 seen here, is something of a novelty.

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Turntables, Arms & CartridgesVintage
Philips GA 202 Electronic Turntable
Review: Tim Jarman, Lab: Paul Miller  |  Apr 08, 2022
hfnvintageThis compact '70s deck packed some clever tech when it came to speed control, but is it now an underappreciated classic? Time to find out as the GA 202 is put to the test...

When designing any turntable, ensuring that it maintains the correct and consistent speed is of paramount importance. Numerous techniques have been tried over the years, some with greater success than others. The Philips GA 202 Electronic turntable reviewed here was one of the first popular models to feature a motor controlled by an electronic servo, bringing easy operation and improved performance. This was the deck's key feature, but there were other striking aspects to the design.

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Turntables, Arms & CartridgesVintage
Philips GA 209S turntable
Review: Tim Jarman, Lab: Paul Miller  |  Mar 11, 2026  |  First Published: Apr 01, 2026
hfnvintage‘The only thing it doesn’t do is take the record out of its sleeve’, said Philips of its mid-1970s fully automatic turntable. With no fewer than three motors, how does it fare?

There is always some kind of surprise in store when reviewing vintage Philips products. Whether a new way of doing things or an extra feature you never knew you needed, Philips always had a knack for this sort of thing. The GA 209S seen here was an attempt to completely automate a high-quality turntable. Introduced in 1973, it entered a market where the grinding gears, clicking cams and greasy levers found in the mechanisms of some BSR and Garrard decks were still very much the norm. The Philips approach was quite different; it made extensive use of electronics to control and sequence the mechanism.

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Turntables, Arms & Cartridges
Pioneer PL-12D turntable
Review: Tim Jarman, Lab: Paul Miller  |  Jun 26, 2025  |  First Published: Jun 01, 2025
hfnvintageWith its floating suspension, decent tonearm and hassle-free two-speed operation, Pioneer’s PL-12D was the deck of choice for budding audiophiles in the early/mid-’70s

Many Hi-Fi News readers will have fond memories of Pioneer’s PL-12D turntable. A best seller when new and one of the models that has enjoyed a resurgence in popularity with the vinyl revival, generations of audiophiles have, at one time or another, had one of these decks in their systems. Introduced in 1973, it came at just the right time to benefit from the rapidly increasing growth in affordable hi-fi, setting music lovers on a path to better and (usually) more expensive things.

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Turntables, Arms & CartridgesVintage
Pioneer PL-600 Turntable
Review: Tim Jarman, Lab: Paul Miller  |  Feb 09, 2024
hfnvintageAutomatic arm, quartz-locked motor and a chassis that was a challenge to design... How will this one-time, top-tier direct-drive turntable from 1979 shape up today?

Every keen LP listener should try to experience the joys of a quality direct-drive turntable in their system at least once. Everyone knows the popular favourites, but in the past all the big Japanese names made one or two decks that should still fit the bill.

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From the VaultTurntables, Arms & Cartridges
Prelude & Fugue
Christopher Breunig  |  Oct 10, 2019  |  First Published: Nov 01, 1985
Christopher Breunig auditions the Well-Tempered Arm

What could be more apt than the UK launch of the Well-Tempered Arm at the end of Bach's tercentenary year? Ken Kessler brought you the first picture of this iconoclastic tonearm as part of his April '85 CES report and even before then, he had inveigled California-based designer William Firebaugh into letting us have a review sample.

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Turntables, Arms & Cartridges
Presence Audio London Tonearm (£2495)
Ken Kessler & Paul Miller  |  Jun 04, 2009
For those who use SME arms as the yardstick for all others, the mere presence – no pun intended – of Presence Audio’s London tonearm will come as a slap in the face. No, make that a bucket of foetid, lukewarm water poured over one’s post-modern, refined-by-Wallpaper magazine sensibilities. It looks as if it was made of scrap metal scavenged from a skip behind the Meccano factory, circa 1956. Finish? The review sample hit every branch on the shabby tree, and didn’t even stop at the roots.
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Turntables, Arms & Cartridges
Pro Ject 6 Perspex (£1000)
Steve Harris & Paul Miller  |  Sep 04, 2009
Some turntable manufacturers seem to make one model last for decades, but Pro-Ject is not so inhibited. Even without counting all eight colourways for the Debut III, the Austrian company’s website lists no fewer than 21 different turntable packages. The very latest of these is the Pro-Ject 6 PerspeX. Visually, this is one of Pro-Ject’s happiest creations, certainly far more elegant than its earliest antecedent, the Pro-Ject 6, which I think was the brand’s first subchassis turntable.
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Turntables, Arms & Cartridges
Pro Ject Genie (£140 With Arm And Cartridge)
John Bamford & Paul Miller  |  Feb 04, 2009
In the run up to Christmas 2007 my 14-year-old daughter announced one evening over dinner that she’d like a record player. What brought this on I don’t know. She takes little notice of the hi-fi system in our living room, using it only to deliver ‘big sound’ when watching one of her favourite music channels on TV. I’m not sure that she’s even clocked the Townshend Rock Reference that’s been sitting on the top shelf of my equipment rack since before she was born.
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Turntables, Arms & Cartridges
Pro Ject Rpm 10.1 Evolution Turntable (£2000)
Steve Harris & Paul Miller  |  May 08, 2010
Bigger and fatter even than the RPM 9, which it otherwise resembles, the RPM 10. 1 Evolution updates on the earlier RPM 10 with a better arm and other refinements. But the choice of materials is as important as the quantities of them. Pro-Ject’s Austrian founder and owner has been experimenting with different materials since the inception of the company 20 years ago.
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Turntables, Arms & Cartridges
Pro Ject V Pack (£1000)
Steve Harris and Paul Miller  |  May 08, 2011
Taking advantage of Ortofon’s latest cartridge range update, Pro-Ject offers a new keenly-priced plug-and-play turntable package that promises moving-coil bliss There’s always been a strand of hi-fi culture that says you have to suffer to be beautiful, an idea that you just have to go through a lot of mixing and matching, and twiddling and tweaking, to get good sound from the old vinyl LP. If you’re prey to this kind of thinking, an all-in-one, plug-and-play record deck solution just seems too easy. But why fight it, when the manufacturer will do it all for you? Pragmatic as ever, Pro-Ject offers a huge range of package options, from its basic Debut series upwards. If you’re just trying to stop your spending going much into four figures, you can try a package in the more refined Xperience series.
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Turntables, Arms & Cartridges
Pro Ject Xtension 9 Super Pack Belt Driven Turntable System (£2200 Inc. Arm And Cartridge)
Hi-Fi News Staff  |  Jan 09, 2015
Pro-Ject’s Xtension 9 Super Pack mates the Xtension 9 Evolution turntable and 9CC Evolution arm to the new Ortofon Quintet Black MC. Its plinth measures a nicely compact 465x350mm and so size-related rack placement is not an issue. This is made from MDF and filled with a metal granulate to produce a non-resonant, high mass, base all topped with a very swish paint finish in High Gloss Red or White. The deck stands on three damped aluminium feet, pre-adjusted for level atthe factory.
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Turntables, Arms & Cartridges
Pro Ject Xtension Turntable (£3250)
John Bamford & Paul Miller  |  May 04, 2009
Before reading beyond this first paragraph, just pause for a moment to take a longer look at our photos of this gargantuan deck. Not for a long time has a product been the cause of so many ‘oohs and aahs’ in HFN’s photographic studio. In the flesh Pro-Ject’s latest turntable looks utterly gorgeous. We first spotted Pro-Ject’s new flagship, dubbed the Xtension, in January when it was unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
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Turntables, Arms & Cartridges
Pro-Ject 175 Vienna Philharmonic Recordplayer turntable
Review: Nick Tate, Lab: Paul Miller  |  Jan 01, 2018
hfncommended.pngLimited to just 175 pieces, this luxuriously-appointed version of Pro-Ject's 'The Classic' turntable is offered in celebration of the VPO. Is this gilding the lily or musical gold?

Forget concept albums, for this is a 'concept turntable' – a striking looking record player that, at first sight, might seem rather 'Trump Tower', and perhaps aesthetically overpowering for conservative European eyes. Put your sunglasses on however, and all becomes clear as the VPO logo engraved into the lower right hand corner of the top plate is revealed. For this is a special commemorative product, a plush limited edition version of Pro-Ject's The Classic turntable [HFN Aug '16], made to celebrate one-and-three-quarter centuries of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

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