Victrola’s Stream Sapphire lossless streaming turntable with Sonos, Roon support offers best of two worlds
Turntables with Bluetooth streaming may have been getting popular lately, but they represent an awkward paradox. Vinyl appeals to audio purists, who swear by its unadulterated analog nature, but the inclusion of compression-heavy, lossy Bluetooth into the signal chain is anathema to them. A solution that brings together the best of vinyl and wireless comes from Victrola – the company that first introduced gramophones and disc records to the world in 1906.
The Victrola Stream Sapphire, a flagship Wi-Fi streaming turntable that was first seen at CES 2024, is now available to pre-order. While it’s not the company’s first Wi-Fi streaming model, it is the first one to combine premium build quality and components with lossless FLAC support and the ability to stream to a wide range of speakers and receivers.
The Stream Sapphire carries the ‘Works with Sonos’ badge, which means it can integrate seamlessly with the Sonos ecosystem of wireless speakers and soundbars. Unlike its less premium siblings, the Victrola Stream Carbon and Stream Onyx (available on Amazon), it also adds support for Roon and the UPnP streaming protocol. This means it can stream full 24-bit/48 kHz FLAC audio to any streamer, AV receiver, or WiFi speaker that supports UPnP.
The upgrades carry over to the hardware side. Victrola has used low resonance MDF with a walnut wood veneer and an aluminium panel for the plinth, and the sound-dampening adjustable feet provide vibration isolation and easy levelling. The servo-controlled brushless motor offers 33 ⅓ and 45 RPM speeds. An Ortofon 2M Blue cartridge and carbon-fibre tonearm round off the high-end setup.
Of course, a built in phono preamp and RCA outputs are available for those who prefer a fully analog signal path, and an ethernet port provides a wired connection for the digital signal, altogether covering pretty much every kind of audio setup. Finally, the Victrola Stream App for iOS and Android allows you to set up the device, make turntable adjustments and control wireless playback.
All this high-end goodness does not come cheap. The Victrola Stream Sapphire can be pre-ordered for $1,300 from Victrola’s website and select retailers, with shipping starting in mid-August in the US. It will be available in the UK from October 1.
Source(s)
Victrola, Audio Advice
