I consider it fortuitous that my semi-retirement coincided with the emergence of streaming as the dominant mode of music distribution. As I wrote in my kick-off feature for Simplifi, my missus and I downsized in early 2018 in preparation for our retirements. Our previous home had a dedicated listening room in a third-floor loft. In our new home, the hi-fi has to live in the living room. That multipurpose space can’t accommodate a conventional component system—hence my use of active speakers, where the amplifiers and other electronics are built into the speaker enclosures.
There’s not much room in our urban rowhouse for physical media either. Earlier in my life, I had a large record collection—two, actually. During the 1970s and ’80s, I amassed a collection of several hundred LPs. I sold off those LPs when I went all-digital in 1987—perfect sound forever! Over the next three decades, I built a library comprising several hundred CDs and about 100 SACDs. In the late aughts, I ripped those discs and embraced file-based playback. Then, a couple of years before my wife and I moved into our current home, I subscribed to Tidal and started streaming.
Perfect timing. That meant I could enjoy music in glorious high fidelity without cluttering up our living room with audio gear or physical media.
But note the qualifier “semi” in the first sentence. Despite being well past retirement age, I’m still toiling part-time, writing reviews and features for this site and acting as managing editor for all of the sites on the SoundStage! Network.
Many of the products I’ve reviewed on Simplifi have had built-in phono stages. How could I evaluate this feature if I didn’t have a ’table to test it out? So in early 2021, I bought a Pro-Ject Debut Carbon Evo, which I’ve recently tricked out with an upgraded cartridge, platter, and subplatter. Most of the time, my yellow Pro-Ject ’table sits on a small stand next to the secretary desk in my second-floor home office.
Mix it up
Since buying that turntable, I’ve amassed a modest record collection, which lives in a crate under my desk. I’ve chosen some LPs because they help me assess the components I’m reviewing and others as tributes to artists whose music I love. Some are by musicians I’ve been listening to for decades, and others are by artists whose music I’ve recently discovered through streaming. I’ve also found a few treasures just browsing through the bins at local record stores.
These days, almost all of my listening is from Qobuz and my personal digital library, which resides on an SSD inside a Roon Labs Nucleus One server. But I also enjoy listening to my LPs. That’s no problem if I’m in my office—my Pro-Ject ’table is hardwired to the phono inputs on the PSB Alpha iQ active speaker system that I use for desktop audio. But what if I want to listen through the KEF LS60 Wireless active speaker system downstairs in the living room? I’ve discovered some interesting options that make it possible to play music from physical media (not just LPs, but CDs as well) in situations where the traditional source-amp-speaker paradigm won’t work.
Cut the cable
One possibility is a turntable that can transmit audio wirelessly via Bluetooth. Look on Amazon, and you’ll find Bluetooth turntables from brands you’ve never heard of, with names like Angels Horn, Retrolife, and Seasonlife. But Bluetooth turntables are also available from more familiar brands, including Audio-Technica, Cambridge Audio, House of Marley, Pro-Ject, Sony, and Victrola.
To my knowledge, the most ambitious Bluetooth turntable currently available is Cambridge Audio’s Alva TT V2, which comes with a preinstalled high-output moving-coil cartridge. Maybe it’s too ambitious. When I reviewed the Alva TT V2 in June 2023, it retailed for $1999 (all prices in USD). The price has since fallen to $1499. The Alva is a great piece of kit, with outstanding build quality.
I loved the sound of the Cambridge ’table when I engaged its built-in phono stage and connected it directly to the line-level inputs on my LS60 system. When I switched to Bluetooth, the sound became more closed-in and homogenized, the soundstage became more two-dimensional, and dynamics became more compressed. That said, the sound with the Bluetooth connection was still very enjoyable.
It’s worth noting that the Alva TT was using the base SBC codec to stream audio to the LS60 via Bluetooth. The turntable supports the higher-quality aptX and aptX HD codecs, but the LS60 does not. That meant the signal was undergoing significant lossy compression when I used the Bluetooth connection.
Beyond Bluetooth
Shortly after I reviewed the Alva TT V2, another wireless turntable came in for review. But the Pro-Ject T2 W ($1199), which comes with a preinstalled Sumiko Rainier cartridge, is not a Bluetooth turntable. It uses Wi-Fi to transmit audio to playback devices that support the UPnP protocol.
Depending on the device you’re streaming to, the T2 W sends compressed 256kbps MP3 audio or uncompressed 24-bit/48kHz PCM. I thought the MP3 and 24/48 streams both sounded wonderful, but the uncompressed stream was a tad more incisive and transparent. Later, when I compared the MP3 stream to a direct connection between the T2 W and my LS60 system, I found the sound with the direct connection more transparent, smoother, and harmonically richer. But these differences were noticeable only with a direct comparison.
The T2 W is part of Pro-Ject’s affordable T-series lineup. Toward the end of the review period, I asked company founder Heinz Lichtenegger if Pro-Ject planned to release higher-end turntables with Wi-Fi streaming. No such products were planned, he told me. But Lichtenegger did say that Pro-Ject plans to introduce a phono preamp with Wi-Fi streaming. I can’t wait for that to happen, because such a product would enable me to stream music from my Debut Carbon Evo ’table to the KEF LS60 system.
Black box
Lately, I’ve been spending some time with a product that offers similar capabilities. Back in September, I received a review sample of the latest iteration of the Bluesound Node streaming preamplifier. I haven’t been able to finish that review because I’m waiting for Lenbrook International, Bluesound’s parent company, to release a software update that enables one of the new Node’s most compelling features—support for Dirac Live room correction.
Along with the new Node, Lenbrook also sent me the Bluesound Hub ($299), a nifty little device with phono, line-level analog, coaxial (RCA) and optical (TosLink) S/PDIF, and HDMI eARC inputs. It lets you stream audio from connected source components over your home network to other components, such as the Alpha iQ system, that use Lenbrook’s BluOS multiroom music-streaming software. To play music from a source connected to the Hub through a BluOS device, select that device in the Players menu of the BluOS Controller app. Then open the Music menu, where you’ll see the Hub in the Music Sources menu of the BluOS app.
When streaming music to a single zone, the Hub sends uncompressed 24/48 PCM audio. When streaming to multiple zones, it sends a compressed AAC stream. But you can use the BluOS app to have the Hub send uncompressed 24/48 audio even if you’re streaming to multiple zones.
To assess the Bluesound Hub, I spun a recent vinyl purchase, Opening by the Tord Gustavsen Trio (ECM 2742 4541157), on my Pro-Ject ’table, which was connected to the phono inputs on the PSB Alpha iQ system. Then I connected the ’table to the Hub, switched to the Hub’s phono input in the Music menu of the BluOS app, and played the same song again. I noticed no difference at all between the direct connection and the streamed audio from the Hub. That didn’t surprise me. According to Lenbrook, the phono stage in the Hub is “basically the same” as the one in the Alpha iQ. The Hub performs RIAA equalization in the analog domain, then converts the signal to 24/48 PCM. The Alpha iQ converts analog audio to 16/48 PCM, then passes the stream on to its digital processor.
I also connected the Node to the coaxial S/PDIF input of the KEF LS60 Wireless system in my living room, then played some vinyl and streamed music to the Node from the Hub. That worked like a charm as well. I also grouped the Node and Alpha iQ together, selected the Hub’s phono input in the BluOS app, and played some vinyl simultaneously through the KEF system downstairs and the PSB system upstairs, with no issues. I even disabled Compressed Grouped Audio in the Settings menu for the Hub so that it would send 24/48 PCM to both zones, and that worked fine.
During my testing, there was the occasional dropout—but this happened rarely, and the dropouts were very brief. My conclusion: the Bluesound Hub is a dandy little device and a valuable addition to the BluOS ecosystem.
Wireless-ready
On both my KEF and PSB active-speaker systems, all the inputs are on the primary speaker. The same is true of other active and powered speakers I’ve reviewed here on Simplifi from brands such as Bang & Olufsen, Dynaudio, Elac, Elipson, JBL, Kanto, Klipsch, Sony, SVS, Technics, and Totem Acoustic. With all these systems, if you want to play music from physical media, the source component has to be hardwired to the appropriate input on the primary speaker.
I’ve also reviewed active speaker systems from brands such as Buchardt Audio, Q Acoustics, System Audio, and Triangle that work with small wireless hubs that have built-in streamers as well as inputs for external components. The hub and connected components can be placed in a convenient location, and the hub will transmit wireless audio to the speakers. This can make it possible to play music from a turntable, CD player, or other source component in a setting where physical media would otherwise be impractical—such as my living room.
Coming soon
The range of products that make it easier to integrate physical media into Simplifi’d hi-fi systems continues to grow. A couple of days before wrapping up this article, UPS dropped off a review sample of Victrola’s Stream Sapphire turntable ($1299.99). Victrola is best known for inexpensive lifestyle products such as suitcase record players and retro-styled music systems that look like old jukeboxes. But Victrola also offers serious turntables. There are Bluetooth models as well as Wi-Fi models that can stream audio to Sonos multiroom components.
The Stream Sapphire is Victrola’s flagship turntable. It has a carbon-fiber tonearm and adjustable-height aluminum feet, and it comes with a preinstalled Ortofon 2M Blue cartridge. Like Victrola’s Stream Onyx, Stream Pearl, and Stream Carbon, it has Works with Sonos certification. But the Stream Sapphire can also send uncompressed 24/48 PCM audio to components that support UPnP. Victrola specifically mentions KEF’s LSX II, LS50 Wireless II, and LS60 Wireless as being compatible with the Stream Sapphire.
Clearly, the Stream Sapphire is not your great-great-granddaddy’s Victrola. I’m looking forward to putting it through its paces. My review of the Stream Sapphire will go live on Simplifi very soon. It will be followed by reviews of other components that let you integrate physical media with Simplifi’d hi-fi.
. . . Gordon Brockhouse
