Top News

No space for bookshelf speakers? The Victrola Soundstage sits neatly under my turntable

12

soundbase-4.jpg

Victrola Soundstage

4 / 5

Very good

pros and cons

Pros

  • Elevated design
  • Punchy, deep bass
  • Plenty digital and analog connectivity
Cons

  • Recessed upper-mids
  • Limited separation

more buying choices

Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source can help you build your vinyl system up rather than out, without compromising sound quality. 

Best bluetooth speaker deals of the week

Deals are selected by the CNET Group commerce team, and may be unrelated to this article.

It’s quite impressive

The Victrola Soundstage sits underneath your turntable. The Soundstage was made with Victrola’s Wave and Automatic turntables in mind, but as long as your turntable has a preamp or you have an external one, it’ll work with the Soundstage.

The Soundstage’s sound profile leans warm, with a greater emphasis on low and lower-mid frequencies. You end up with a very punchy, deep bass response with minimal distortion, making hip-hop and pop tracks highly enjoyable, whether you’re listening passively at low levels or having a maxed-out volume jam session. 

Also: I swapped my Bose and JBL speakers for this floating Turtlebox – and it’s seriously tough

I spun BTS’s “Arirang” album and enjoyed the high-energy A-sides, while the slower, more relaxed B-sides offered just as much bass with a little recession in the upper range. Upper-mids get a little lost, but vocals aren’t drowned out by bass.

This emphasis on low frequencies, with slight damping at higher frequencies, is a combination of the analog medium and the Soundstage’s tuning. You’ll get more of the smaller details in a higher-resolution digital format, but the Soundstage’s texture and bass reproduction make for an enjoyable listen.

excels at it. For beginners with minimal space looking to upgrade their setup, the Soundstage is certainly an improvement over low-quality speakers or an all-in-one suitcase record player. With so many analog and digital connection methods, you can squeeze a lot of use out of the Soundstage.

Also: 48 hours later with the Google Home Speaker, I can’t stop talking to Gemini (even if it’s imperfect)

If you’re a more seasoned vinyl enthusiast, you’ll enjoy the Soundstage’s compact frame, especially if you’re looking to build a second (or third) vinyl setup away from your main one. It will be bassier than your balanced, audiophile-grade speakers, but it is very fun, and sometimes that’s what matters more.

Send this to a friend