Four decades have passed since Ivor Tiefenbrun from preached that the most important component in your Hi-Fi system is the source. The quality of the rest of the system is irrelevant if you feed it an inferior signal, all you end-up with is an amplified version of that mediocre source. He took this approach with his original LP12 turntable, a design that remains effectively the same today – its ongoing success bearing testament to his beliefs.
Many are surprised to learn how much difference there is in the performance of turntables, and even more surprising is that price is not always a good indication of quality. One of the best examples we can think of is yet another turntable to come out of the UK – Avid. Avid do not produce the cheapest turntables on the market, far from it. They are unique in that they don’t produce tonearms, leaving that to companies that specialise in that technology. What also stands them apart from most is the fact that at any price-point their turntables sound better than many of their more expensive competitors.
Their basic offering, the Ingenium, is a great example. This turntable, coupled with the Rega RB303 tonearm, sells for $2,499, yet it is demonstrably better than many of its more costly peers. Another attribute of this brand is that at any price point there is a remarkably high level of engineering. While there is a number of simple turntable designs on the market that still sound good Avid have taken a highly engineered approach to their design, and the results speak for themselves. The Ingenium is again a case in point, it is beautifully engineered, particularly given its price point. This is possibly why it has been named as the Turntable of the Year under $3,000 by Australia’s Sound+Image magazine.
Avid’s first turntable, the Acutus, was released in 1999 and is still their flagship model. All subsequent models are direct ascendants of this best-they-can-build model, rather than the more commonly employed methodology of building a basic model first and then trying to improve on that. They also take an unique approach in that almost all the components that go into an Avid turntable are manufactured in their factory, rather than being subcontracted out, offering far greater control over the quality of the manufacturing process.
We carry Avid turntables from $2,499 (Ingenium) through to $11,200 (Volvere SP) and there are much more expensive options also available. We encourage you come for a visit and discover the differences in musical performance for yourself.
Don’t just buy a turntable – buy the experience.
