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Hi-Fi Corner: U-Turn Audio’s Orbit turntable is the ultimate gateway drug to vinyl addiction

hi fi corner uturn audio orbit turntable u turn featured image
Vinyl records are back in a big way. You can find them all over the place now, and not just at that little record shop across town — even stores like Walmart and Target have joined the likes of Urban Outfitters in offering brand new pressings for sale. And right next to the records in those stores you’ll find turntables conveniently available, too. But you shouldn’t buy one.

Budget record players have their place, certainly — we know not everyone wants to spend big bucks to get into a new hobby. But there’s a problem with the turntables you’ll find at those mega-marts and hipster shops: they don’t sound very good. So if you want great vinyl sound in addition to the appealing tactile and aesthetic experience that comes with records, you’ll need to spend a little more. The good news? You don’t have to spend upwards of $300 to get one of those “highly recommended” turntables you see reviewed online. Look no further than the U-Turn Audio Orbit basic turntable.

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U-Turn audio is in the business of making audiophile-worthy turntables that don’t break the bank. The Orbit basic comes in five different colors, outfitted with a totally respectable Audio Technica AT91B cartridge and stylus (the same one you’ll find on many more expensive turntables), and ships to your doorstep for $179.

Out of the box, the Orbit needs very little set-up because U-Turn has done all the tricky work ahead at their factory. All that’s needed to get the ‘table up and running is to place the included thick acrylic platter (which looks awesome, by the way) on the turntable’s spindle, wrap the included belt around the platter and motor (33 1/3 and 45 RPM speeds supported) and remove the stylus guard from the cartridge. U-Turn balances the player’s tonearm, sets the tracking force, and aligns the cartridge at the factory, so there’s nothing else to do but plug the table in and start listening.

Of course, you’ll need a stereo receiver with a phono input on it, or you’ll need to pick up a phono pre-amp if your receiver doesn’t have one — U-Turn offers its PLUTO phono pre for $90 (which also lets you use a pair of powered speakers if you want), but less expensive options are available online as well.

After spinning the Orbit for a few hours, we’re confident all manner of new and returning vinyl enthusiasts will love it. The table isn’t super-fancy, and requires more manual operation (there’s no auto-return for the tonearm, no fine speed control, and no cue lever)  but it looks and sounds fantastic, and is easily the best bang for your buck we’ve seen in a turntable yet. Pick one up and you will absolutely not be disappointed.

This article first appeared at The Manual’s brother site, DigitalTrends.com

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As Spotify, Apple Music, and others jockey for position, it seems not a day goes by without some kind of new development in the world of streaming music. Yet, despite our perpetual plunge into the digital age, vinyl -- the same format your grandpa enjoyed before the calculator was invented -- is hotter than ever. A new Kickstarter venture is hoping to capitalize on vinyl’s renaissance, offering a clever way to put newly purchased turntables and carefully curated stacks of wax on display in a space-saving monolith simply called: Turntable Station.

While IKEA is happy to provide you with a four square stand to house your turntable and records, Line Phono’s Turntable Station is a pretty slick way to manage a smaller footprint for your retro setup. The four-story tower takes up only 2.6 square feet, while providing two floors of storage for your record collection. Line Phono claims the Station can hold  up to 200 albums --  perhaps not suitable for the High Fidelity-style vinyl fanatic, but just about perfect for the newly initiated analog enthusiast.

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What do you do when you’ve got a shamelessly decadent high-resolution audio player, loaded with top-tier audio components, and more bells and whistles than an audiophile can shake a stick at? If you’re Astell&Kern, you build an even more lavish audio player, of course. Meet the latest and greatest flagship portable audio device from Astell&Kern, the AK380.
Supplanting the $2,500 AK240 from the top of the heap, which we referred to as the “drug of choice” for audiophiles with infinitely deep pockets, the AK380 is the new hotness -- to the tune of $3,500. While Astell&Kern has a long lineup of portable hi-res players that includes the relatively affordable new AK Jr ($499), the company has never been shy about going after the top 1 percent of the music-listening public. And if you’re a part of that segment, the AK380 has plenty of sonic artillery to wine and dine you.
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The AK380 takes high-res up a notch, superseding the  24bit/192kHz high-resolution limitations of the mortal audiophile universe for 32bit/384kHz capability in a wide variety of audio file formats. Of course, whether you’ll be able to find anything at that resolution -- or be able to hear the difference -- is very much up for debate. But never mind all that, this player is all about extravagance.
But, perhaps more important here are the pristine audio components the AK380 has locked inside, including a new digital audio converter (the thing that turns 1s and 0s into sound) designed to offer a “true Dual-Mono setup” for even better channel separation, a broader stereo image, and better dynamics to up the ante once again for the AK lineup.
Other features for the player include a 4-inch TFT-LCD screen (as opposed to the AK240’s AMOLED display), 256GB of internal memory with up to 128GB of additional storage via microSD, and an uber-precise Parametric EQ system, all encased in a sleek body constructed from aircraft-grade aluminum.
Along with both balanced and unbalanced outputs (for a variety of headphones and direct home theater connection) the new device also complies with DLNA 1.0 to stream from compatible NAS storage drives, as well as Bluetooth 4.0 for wireless streaming -- though streaming at the low resolution afforded by Bluetooth seems almost a crime for this device. Like the AK240, the player is also Wi-Fi compatible to download music wirelessly, and can also act as an external USB-connected DAC to sub for your PC’s unworthy sound card. Users will also be able to stream files and control the AK380 from an iOS or Android device with a forthcoming app.
There's no doubt the AK380 is a luxe device to say the least, but for those who must have the best of everything, this is the new high-resolution portable player to beat. The AK380 will be available "soon" at an MSRP of $3,499.
A version of this post first appeared on our "brother site" Digital Trends

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