What if Sonos made a turntable? This was not the case. But if Sonos were to build a vinyl turntable, it would surely look a lot like the Victrola Stream Carbon.
The aesthetic nod to the wireless audio company is no coincidence. Victrola developed the new turntable in close collaboration with Sonos to obtain the company's certification as a compatible device with the Sonos wireless audio system.
As such, it's the company's first Wi-Fi-enabled turntable, over 115 years old, and the first designed specifically to work with existing Sonos speaker systems.
Victrola CEO Scott Hagen told me that Victrola studied Sonos customers and found that 50% play vinyl records at least once a month. That number seems high to us, but the vinyl market has skyrocketed to €1.5 billion (opens in a new tab) in 2021.
The roughly 14-pound turntable is a nice modern mix of aluminum, steel, and carbon. It sits low to the ground but, according to Victrola, is protected from vibrations. Its 2-inch-high anti-vibration feet are hidden inside the player.
The belt-driven turntable also includes built-in Wi-Fi and plenty of void space that engineers used to protect the audio components from Wi-Fi interference.
Above the turntable is a carbon fiber arm fitted with an Ortofon Red cartridge.
It's a premium turntable at $799 (it won't be available outside the US at launch), which means there's a counterweight on the other end of that arm. However, Victrola has ensured that every aspect of turntable setup is as simple as Sonos setup.
As you add weight to the tonearm, the markings show you exactly where to place it. Victrola claims that each system will arrive perfectly balanced.
Similarly, setting up and connecting to an existing Sonos system is designed to reflect Sonos's oft-praised ease of use. Victrola representatives explained that once you've finished setting up the Victrola Stream Carbon and turning it on, you can scan a QR code on the Victrola box that will open the Sonos app on your phone. It will show you the turntable in the app and then ask you to select your Sonos system's Wi-Fi network.
There is, on the front of the player, a single large button for volume control. In fact, depending on which Sonos speakers you have connected, you can control the volume of each one.
The only other control is for playback speed: 33 RPM or 45 RPM. Next to the control is a machined adapter for your 45 rpm records.
Victrola gave us a short demo, playing songs from Dina Washington's For These in Love and Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska. Both sounded, as you would expect from vinyl, warm and lovely.
Of course, that sound came from an array of Sonos speakers and soundbars scattered around the demo space in midtown Manhattan. As promised, when the Victrola engineer turned the big turntable knob, all the speakers increased in volume. He later showed me the Sonos app where we could control the volume of each speaker individually.
Despite its Sonos capabilities, the Victrola Carbon Stream is a fully capable analog turntable and includes the necessary RCA output jacks. There's also an Ethernet port if you want to go old school with network connectivity.
Even before this turntable hits the market, Victrola is planning other Stream turntables, potentially with different materials and in different colors and styles.
The Victrola Carbon Stream is now available for pre-order and will ship in October with, yes, a dust cover which I haven't seen on display.