Munich 2024

High End Munich 2024 is officially in the books, but our coverage continues onward. We will be posting on-site video reports and multi-part show reports in the days to come — but today, we take a look at Luphonic’s R2 turntable. The R2 is the German manufacturer’s just-introduced, more affordable alternative to their top-tier R3 model.

Luphonic Labs was founded in Linden in central Hesse, Germany at the beginning of 2020. At High End Munich, they were located in Hall 3, Stand P15, wherein they company was showing and demo’ing a number of their turntables and tonearms alike. (The R3 was demo'ed in Room E121, A4.1.)

The Luphonic R2 is a belt-driven turntable equipped with the company’s own K2 gimbal-mounted 9.5in tonearm (seen below), and the table’s rotating tonearm base can accommodate arms between 9in and 12in. The table’s sub-chassis drive consists of two layers of highly polished, white solid surface material, separated by a layer of vibration-damping cellular rubber.

The R2 table measures 44 x 12 x 35cm (w/h/d), weighs 10kg, and is equipped with height-adjustable feet. Like the R2’s chassis, its 24mm platter is made of solid surface material, and is said to “guarantee detailed reproduction thanks to its low-resonance, homogeneous structure.”

The R2’s synchronous motor is mounted on the lower layer, separately from the platter bearing and tonearm. It is controlled by motor electronics developed in-house at Luphonic — with which, the company states, both the amplitude and the phase shift of the two sine waves are individually adapted to the built-in motor. This is said to “ensure an extremely quiet and low-vibration drive.”

The R2 table offers 33⅓rpm and 45rpm playback options electronically selectable via the puck control. An LED display provides information about the selected speed and other parameters.

The SRP for the Luphonic R2 turntable is €3,690. For comparison, the flagship R3 table has an SRP of €4,290 without tonearm, €4,990 with the K2 9in tonearm, and €5,290 with the K2 12in arm. The K2 tonearm itself is offered separately for €990 for the 9in version, and €1,290 for the 12in version.

For more about Luphonic, go here.
To find authorized Luphonic dealers and distributors, go here.