Turntables, Arms & Cartridges

Eastern Europe is no stranger to high-quality boutique hi-fi brands [HFN Apr ’24, Jun ’24 and Feb ’25] with ‘analogue’ audio a particular favourite. Igor Gligorov’s company, Soulines, is based in Serbia and has graced these pages before, but UK distribution has now been re-established thanks to Sound Fowndations. The timing is spot on, as Soulines has recently released a new turntable, the tt9, loosely described as ‘entry level’ and selling for £3990 with partnering KiVi M3 tonearm.

A half century on from its launch, Technics’ latest SL-1300 turntable is still a direct-drive design featuring an S-shaped tonearm, but the tech has evolved beyond compare!

Is Technics trying to recreate its phonographic glory days of the 1970s? Back then, its catalogues were filled with 10-15 different models, while the arrival of the new £2799 SL-1300G turntable takes the current tally to seven across DJ, Grand Class, Premium Class and Reference Class ranges, plus the odd limited edition. So, the modern day Technics brand is inching closer!

For a company that took three decades before introducing its first turntable, followed by a seven-year wait between the second and third models, SME seems now to be moving at a lightning pace. The flagship Model 60 arrived in 2022 [HFN Jul ’22], followed swiftly by Mk2 versions of the Models 12 and 15 over the next two years [HFN Jan ’23 and Jul ’24, respectively]. Now it has added two more turntables to its portfolio – the Model 8, replacing the Model 6 as SME’s entry-level unit, and the Model 35 seen here, slotting in below the Model 60.

Is there a more outrageous-looking cartridge than Ortofon’s radical MC 90X? By now we should be used to the shape since the MC 90X’s form was first introduced 15 years ago in Ortofon’s MC A90. This revised version, in a cool blue hue, still has that look of a Bizarro horseshoe from the side. Forgive the Superman reference, but this cartridge turned out to be something of a hero.

From the Japanese founder of the Zoot Sims Fan Club comes a range of artisan moving-coils, all joining distributor Absolute Sounds’ TEN collection. Entry starts with the EX300

If the closure of Japanese cartridge manufacturer, Koetsu, in 2024 left a gap in the lives of analogue fans the world over, it also left a gap in the portfolio of its UK distributor, Absolute Sounds. In this case, the door led to cartridge brand Analog Relax, and the EX300 under consideration here is its entry level model, retailing in the UK for £2698.

This just may be the most self-fulfilling review I’ve ever written. DS Audio has unleashed a valve energiser and equaliser, the TB-100, for its optical cartridges. Up to this point, every one of its cartridges has been launched with a matching solid-state energiser of relative or comparable price, but the TB-100 has been released on its own. Because every DS Audio cartridge will work with any of the energisers regardless of price, this time it’s all about the tubes.

It’s always exciting when a designer of great renown finally brings to market an own-name product. So while many of us may not instantly recognise the name Thiele – not to be confused with the Thiel Audio brand of the US that declared bankruptcy in 2018 – there is every chance that we’ve already come across one of Helmut Thiele’s many creations.