Analog Gear News

E.A.T. (European Audio Team) importer VANA Ltd. just introduced to the North American market the new Prelude turntable. The Prelude features a new 9 inch A-Note tonearm said to be lightweight, ultra-stiff and resonance-free, fitted with an Ortofon 2M Red MM cartridge as well as a "heavy" aluminum platter spinning on a low tolerance (0.01%) polished stainless steel spindle in a soft bronze bushing.

At CES 2019 Technics expanded its turntable line with the introduction of the SL-1500C "complete" turntable with built-in MM phono preamplifier as well as a new SL-1200MK7—the company's first new standard DJ turntable in approximately 9 years.

Peekskill New York based Soundsmith launched at last October's RMAF a new ES line of moving cartridges that includes ES versions of their Otello, The Voice, Aida, Carmen MKII, Zephyr MKIII, Zephyr MIMIC, Hyperion, Paua MKII, and Sussuro MKII.

October 21st, 2018, Matawan, N.J.—VPI Industries today debuted a brand new $15,000 HW-40 Direct Drive Turntable at an event held at its Matawan, N.J. "VPI House" headquarters to help celebrate the company's 40th anniversary.

Here's the poop directly from Rega:
"The Planar 8 was inspired by the ultimate Rega turntable, the 'Naiad'. We decided early on that instead of an evolution of the previous RP8, the new Planar 8 was to be developed and engineered to encapsulate the essence of 'Naiad' at an affordable price. Our aim was to deliver a level of performance far beyond what has been achieved at this price point before.

(Gothenburg Sweden, 6-25-2018)— SAT (Swedish Analog Technologies) last week announced that it's begun shipping its next-gen series of pickup arms, the LM-09 and LM-12 and the CF1-09 and CF1-12, both of which went into production last April.