Key Features
Introduction
The Audio Advice Live show in a sweltering , stormy Raleigh , North Carolina is where I get to get wind the Victrola Stream Sapphire ( or the VPT-4000 - WLN , to give its full and unmemorable model designation ) .
It ’s currently on sales agreement in the United States ( where it sells for $ 1299 ) , but as far as a European launch date is come to it ’s difficult to get an result any more specific than soon .
Soon is also when it ’s suppose to become Roon Ready , too . But it has more than enough functionality to be going with in the meantime …
Design
At a glimpse , the Stream Sapphire is basically indistinguishable to theStream CarbonI reviewed on this website in 2023 . But while the chassis is fundamentally the same , there is an upgrade or two yield a visual denotation of where your extra cash might have gone .
The main body of the MDF plinth is wrap in real walnut tree wood facing – it ’s visually attractive ( if you ask me ) , undeniably haptic and choke a distance towards justifying the overall request cost . The overall standard of build and finish is every bit as good as it is with the Stream Carbon – that ’s to say it ’s well up to standard .
And the manner the phonograph record is recessed into the top of the frame break it a nicely low - visibility look which is only accent by the minimum dust - covering . tot in some tallness - adjustable atomic number 13 metrical unit with integrated dampening and the design of the Stream Sapphire is paying attention and thorough .
Features
Just like its less expensive sib , the Stream Sapphire is a bang - movement machine with automatic pep pill change between 33.3 and 45rpm . The straight 225 millimeter tonearm is made of carbon copy - character , and feature a bayonet - fit out headshell with pickup already bind and adjusted . For this lazy Susan , though , Victrola has assign the extremely well - regarded Ortofon Blue 2 M move magnet cartridge – an upgrade on the Stream Carbon ’s Red 2M.
At the rear of the chassis is where you find the physical connexion . There ’s a figure - of - eight input for main power , and a pair of atomic number 79 - plot stereophonic system RCA socket for connector to an amplifier , powered speaker system or what - have - you – the Stream Sapphire outputs at line degree , which makes it able to connect to passably much any system you like . But it also means that anyone with a decent phono stage in their system already wo n’t be able-bodied to use it in conjunction with this Victrola .
There ’s also an RJ45 Ethernet socket here . Allied to the fact that the Stream Sapphire features Wi - Fi too , it ’s easy enough to get your Victrola onto a local connection using the dedicated control app . And from there , not only does it integrate into the Sonos control app as a germ – intend it can stream wirelessly to yourSonos speaker(s ) – but it also uses Vinylstream Wi - Fi to stream to any UPnP - enable product . And stream 24 - bit/48kHz lossless FLAC files , what ’s more .
These are feature that ensure the Victrola has very , very few corresponding competitors . In fact , off the top of my head I can only think of Pro - Ject ’s T2 W lazy Susan that can rain buckets to UPnP gadget losslessly – and even then , it has no whole shebang with Sonos documentation …
Sound Quality
Perhaps it ’s just because the Stream Sapphire is so visually similar to the Stream Carbon I tested a while back , but subconsciously I expect it to vocalise exchangeable too . And in some ways at least , the strait of the Sapphire is more than a niggling reminiscent of that of the Carbon .
It ’s deserving pointing out here that I heard the Stream Sapphire a ) in a clean unhelpful hotel way , and b ) wireless cyclosis to a pair of KEF LS60 Wireless loudspeakers . Source music was mostly by Cannonball Adderley and Dave Brubeck .
They sure as shooting have refinement and tending to detail in common . The Stream Sapphire sound quite liquid and high burnish in its overall display , but it ’s alert to those fine particular of shade and quality that go towards creating a unadulterated picture . stereophonic focus is good , and the organisation of the soundstage ( which vocalise wide and deep via the LS60 Wireless ) is convincing too .
Tonality is on the opulent side of indifferent , but not fatally so – the heat energy the Victrola seems to infix is mild . And the turntable handle the frequency range well too , modulating smoothly and founder each area its due emphasis .
There ’s a slight , but definite , lack of thrust and dynamism to the display , though – and , therefore , a comparable want of play . Like almost every notable jazz performing artist , Cannonball Adderley and Dave Brubeck wish to indulge in variety in volume and attack and saturation – but during my time in its company , the Stream Sapphire alludes to these sequence rather than making them expressed .
But it ’s important to carry in mind that everything the Victrola does during my listen – and it ’s bring forth an abominable draw right – it does wirelessly . It ’s sit around on a tabletop , a good distance from the speakers it ’s streaming to – and there seems to be no obvious compromise in carrying out . Which is laudable all by itself .
