Analog Gear News

While CES 2024 rolls on, we wanted to take some time to tip our collective analog hat to Music Hall — the brainchild of noted product designer Roy Hall — a company that has been making sweet music, er, sweet gear for us all since 1998. But less than a month ago in mid-December 2023, the company announced a change in ownership. Turntable USA, a new venture led by industry veterans James Davis, Norbert Schmied, and Jonathan Derda, acquired the Music Hall brand — and, according to a press statement, “This transition secures Music Hall’s mission started by founder Roy Hall, delivering high-quality audio to music lovers at fair prices.”

Roy Hall himself shared his approval of the acquisition by saying, “I am pleased that Music Hall has been acquired by people that understand the market and share my passion for music. I’ve known these guys for many years, and I am confident that they will continue to build on the Music Hall legacy. For those cheering my passing of the baton, I’ll still be here working for Music Hall as a consultant to ensure a smooth transition.”

The new owners at Turntable USA have a stated mission to “uphold” Music Hall’s reputation for creating high-value products. VP of Sales Jonathan Derda noted, “Value for money is top of people’s minds now more than ever, and Music Hall has been a leader in this for over 25 years. We’re excited to work with Roy on creating new products and continue the traditions he started.”

We too here at AP are excited to find out where Music Hall goes next ourselves, seeing how we’ve long enjoyed seeing and hearing (and occasionally testing) many a turntable under the company’s umbrella over the past quarter-century — cartridges and other electronics of theirs too included, for that matter.

At the most recent Capital Audiofest last fall, we quite enoyed seeing Music Hall’s direct-drive Stealth turntable with its “handy” auto-stop feature (which you can see on display here, in Part 2 of Julie Mullins’ show report). Interestingly, the Stealth is currently out of stock, according to the official Music Hall site — as are a few other MH ’tables, which may (or may not) have something to do with the ownership transition period.

With all this in mind and the promise of what’s to come, we’re going to honor Music Hall’s 25-year-plus legacy right now by moving a few steps up their turntable line to take a deeper look at the MMF-9.3 SE turntable, which is billed as the company’s “penultimate” ’table. (The MMF-11.3 SE is the flagship model.)

Here’s the scoop. The Music Hall MMF-9.3 SE turntable is an audiophile-grade, two-speed belt-driven ’table featuring a classic-looking walnut real wood veneer finish and a distinctive triple plinth construction that’s said to “isolate the critical sound reproducing components for the best possible performance.”

The MMF-9.3 SE comes equipped with a one-piece full carbon-fiber tonearm with a counterweight decoupled from the arm that acts as a resonance damper. The completely isolated/decoupled DC motor has 33 1/3 and 45rpm speed controls located in the front left corner of the turntable to, quote, “cancel out any potential vibration from the motor/belt to the cartridge.”

In addition to the optional Goldring Eroica LX low-output moving-coil (MC) cartridge with Gyger II line-contact stylus, the MMF-9.3 SE ’table includes an inverted ceramic main bearing for “super-quiet, fluid operation,” a non-resonant 1in thick acrylic platter, high-quality gold RCA connectors, and detachable phono cable. The MMF-9.3 SE also comes with adjustable tiptoe feet with anti-scratch cups, built-in round spirit level for proper leveling, dust cover (shown below), and 45rpm adapter.

Finally, the Music Hall MMF-9.3 SE turntable has an SRP of $2,999.

For more about Music Hall, go here.
To find an authorized Music Hall dealer, go here.

MUSIC HALL MMF-9.3 SE TURNTABLE
($2,999)

Features & Specs
Power supply: 15V / 0-0.8mA DC universal power supply
Power connection: 100-240V, 50~60Hz
Standby power consumption: <1W
Playback speeds: 33 1/3rpm, 45rpm (electronic speed change)
Wow & flutter: ±0.10%
Speed deviation: ±0.06%
Effective tonearm length: 9in (230mm)
Tonearm weight: 250g (without counterweight)
Effective tonearm mass: 8.5g
Overhang: 18mm
Dimensions: 18.25 x 7.25 x 13.25in (w/h/d)
Weight: 40lb (pkg)