TECHWEEK
Almost a year ago, Victrola introduced the Stream Carbon , a vinyl record player designed to work in the Sonos wireless ecosystem. Today Victrola announced two new wireless turntables – Hi-Res Carbon and Hi-Res Onyx . They’re not certified to work with Sonos, but they do support streaming music in “high definition” via Bluetooth.
“High Definition” needs to be in quotes here because no Bluetooth streaming technology offers truly high resolution—they all use lossy compression. However, the new products include support for the Qualcomm aptX adaptive codec, which can dynamically scale the bitrate to adjust quality. It varies from 279 kbps to 420 kbps for CDs and high-definition music, which significantly exceeds the sound quality of standard Bluetooth. In addition, these are among the first products to use the new Bluetooth 5.4 version.
The Victrola Hi-Res Carbon is a higher-end model featuring a carbon fiber tonearm, removable cartridge and adjustable counterweight. The included Ortofon 2M Red cartridge provides dynamic and warm sound, and the built-in phono stage, which can be turned off if necessary, allows the player to be used with active monitors. The more affordable Victrola Hi-Res Onyx model is equipped with an aluminum tonearm and an Audio-Technica AT-VM95E cartridge.
The Victrola Hi-Res Carbon wireless turntable is available in Europe for €699 and the Hi-Res Onyx for €499 . Both models are already on sale.
