Hi-Fi News Staff

Turntables, Arms & Cartridges
Luxman Pd 171 Belt Driven Turntable (£4950)
Hi-Fi News Staff  |  Jan 09, 2015  |  0 comments
This is a superb statement of intent from a classic Japanese name, clearly acknowledging that vinyl is well and truly back to stay. The PD-171 most certainly wears a retro look but incorporates some fine technology. The deck is belt-driven and the high-torque synchronous AC motor derives its power from a digitally-controlled oscillator, which feeds its output signal into dual DACs and amplifier circuits. As a result, 33.
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Turntables, Arms & Cartridges
Mcintosh Mt5 Belt Driven Turntable System (£7495)
Hi-Fi News Staff  |  Jan 09, 2015  |  0 comments
It’s one thing to be a whizz at electronics, and another to do turntables. They’re a completely different sort of challenge. McIntosh obviously wanted to do something a bit different in a crowded marketplace, and has come up with a combination of user friendliness and ‘millionaire chintz’. Vinyl rookies will appreciate the pre-aligned cartridge already mounted in a prefitted arm.
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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  |  0 comments
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
Rega Rp8/rb808 Belt Driven Turntable With Electronic Speed Control (£1598 Inc Arm)
Hi-Fi News Staff  |  Jan 09, 2015  |  0 comments
Rega’s RP8 turntable uses what it calls ‘Double Brace Technology’. Here stiffening braces above and below the plinth provide rigidity between the turntable main bearing and the arm mounting. Thanks to this, Rega’s Roy Gandy was able to envisage a plinth construction that would be much lighter than in previous designs, so in the RP8 the plinth has given way to a very light skeletal chassis. From a functional point of view, the RP8 on its skeletal chassis is complete in itself but Rega has added a separate outer frame, using the same foam-sandwich construction, to support a dust cover.
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Turntables, Arms & Cartridges
Stst Motus Ii/vertex Direct Drive, Suspended Subchassis Turntable With Tonearm (£4995 Turntable; £2795 Tonearm)
Hi-Fi News Staff  |  Jan 09, 2015  |  0 comments
It’s that very rare bird: a suspended-subchassis turntable with a direct-drive motor. A development of STST’s original Motus solid-chassis model, the Motus II inverts the usual concept of a subchassis turntable. Although the ‘plinth’ is a substantial component made of 20mm MDF, in reality it is just a cover. Once the platter and arm have been removed, it can be lifted off to reveal the whole mechanism.
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Turntables, Arms & Cartridges
Vpi Scout 1.1 Belt Driven Turntable With Manual Speed Control (£1975 Inc Arm)
Hi-Fi News Staff  |  Jan 09, 2015  |  0 comments
VPI’s entry level Scout [HFN Nov ’09] looked deceptively simple, while promising lots of easy adjustment for the deck – even the supplied in-house tonearm that came as part of the package boasted an easy to remove arm wand, thereby facilitating rapid cartridge swapping. The Scout 1. 1 offers more refinement for your money, and is the cheapest VPI turntable to use a freestanding motor unit housed in its own steel case, which tucks into a dedicated cutout in the plinth. Compared to the original Scout, the 1.
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Disc PlayersVintage
Fisher AD 800 (Vintage)
Hi-Fi News Staff  |  Dec 22, 2014  |  0 comments
In the early 1970s Sanyo was a UK market leader in the field of music centres that were extremely popular here, but its separate hi-fi units were not as successful. It was intended that the acquisition of the Fisher brand (in 1975) would solve this problem and less than a year after the CD format had first been made commercially available by Philips and Sony, it launched its first machine, offered in the UK as the Fisher AD 800. A vertical front loader, the AD 800 was a confident entry into the digital field. One reason Sanyo was able to bring this model to market so rapidly was its use of integrated circuits made by Sony.
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Turntables, Arms & CartridgesVintage
Dual CS505 (Vintage)
Hi-Fi News Staff  |  Dec 22, 2014  |  0 comments
If you were just taking your first steps into the world of hi-fi in the early 1980s you’d give serious consideration to the Dual CS505. Often partnered with a NAD 3020 amp by the canny hi-fi buyer on a budget, these two components started many listeners on a path that would bring countless hours of enjoyment. In the 1960s and ’70s Dual occupied a similar place in the German market to BSR and Garrard in the UK, producing turntable units for music centres and combination units. Yet it retained audiophile credibility for the quality of its separate belt-drives, which sold well across Europe.
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Integrated AmplifiersVintage
Rogers Cadet Iii (Vintage)
Hi-Fi News Staff  |  Dec 22, 2014  |  0 comments
A 10W design from the final years of the valve era, the original Rogers Cadet appeared in 1958 as an amplifier and control unit combination for mounting inside a cabinet. Its stereo successor, the Cadet II, appeared in 1962 and proved equally popular. With the version III, gain was increased so that magnetic cartridges like the Shure M44 and M75 series could be used. This was achieved by the use of special ECC807 valves and an extra stage, meaning that the Cadet III control unit became slightly wider.
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Integrated AmplifiersVintage
Sony TA 1120a (Vintage)
Hi-Fi News Staff  |  Dec 22, 2014  |  0 comments
The TA-1120 stereo amplifier was a step-ahead design which combined power, quality, reliability and compactness in a way that had not been seen before, but which in a few years would become ubiquitous across the ranges of Japan’s major hi-fi brands. In 1968 the original TA-1120 was replaced by the TA-1120A, as tested here, the addition of a headphone socket and the removal of a ‘safety’ indicator light being the only obvious external clues as to which model is which. Revisions were also made to the preamplifier circuit. The main selector lever gives a choice of phono 1 (MM) or tuner, along with a central position that selects a rotary control giving four further options, eg, mic, tape head, second MM turntable and line-level auxiliary input, which can be used to connect a CD player.
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