Turntables anD Phono Equipment

Introduction There are products that arrive with careful PR management, measured expectations, and a polite round of applause from the press. And then there are products that land like a fist on a table — ones that make you put down whatever you were doing and actually listen. The MC X40 is the top model in Ortofon's new MC X range, and it proves to be by far the best in absolute terms — sacrificing some of the rough-and-ready character of the lesser models for a sound that

Introduction: FiiO's Unlikely Vinyl Ambition There's a certain audacity to FiiO entering the turntable market at all. The company built its reputation on digital — dongles, DAPs, DAC/amps — things with chips and firmware and USB-C ports. Analog is philosophically the opposite direction. Vinyl demands patience, physical ritual, mechanical precision engineered in the analogue domain. It doesn't update over Wi-Fi. And yet, FiiO's presence in the turntable category is no longer a

After my time with the AUVA EQ isolators, I was fairly sure I had figured out Stack Audio's whole design philosophy: take a principle from mechanical engineering that has been well understood for decades outside of hi-fi, apply it intelligently to an audio component, and let the measurements do the talking. The Serene Mat and Serene Stabiliser confirm that hunch — but they also take the same approach into a much stranger and more interesting environment: the groove of a vinyl

Let’s say you are a vinyl enthusiast, you collected vinyls, and you want to buy your first turntable or to upgrade from all-in-one suitcase turntables. And you don’t know what you want. For who this turntable is? What is manual, automatic, direct/belt drive, phono preamplifier? Can I have Bluetooth as well, speakers…? These are all valid questions, and the role of your first serious audiophile turntable should be to answer all of those. And will it throw you into the waters o

I honestly think if you have tubes in your system, and you like Vinyl, this 50 euro upgrade is essential. I really think how much value and improvement you get from these tubes is miles beyond your stock ones that you get with your device. I used PS Vanes Horizon 12ax7 tubes to improve my phono preamp that I have currently in possession. I used to dabble a little bit with tube rolling, having tubes from Telefunken, Mullard in my possession at different times.

See my favorite Phono Cartridges under 750 euros: https://www.hifidaydreaming.com/post/my-favorite-best-phono-cartridges-under-750-euros-...

This will mainly be a Wiim Pro Plus review, but I also want to put one idea into perspective. How much value does a budget streamer bring...