Vinyl

​Last week Samsung revealed it would cease production on Blu-ray players for the US market. Despite 2018 recording all-time high home entertainment spending, sales of physical media such have been dramatically declining over the past few years. Is this the beginning of the end for physical media?​

McIntosh Labs has revealed a new turntable that has a phono pre-amp and hi-fi amplifier built in, with glowing tubes up top and Bluetooth streaming cooked in. All you need to get the party started is to cable up some quality speakers.

Ever since 2008, Record Store Day has drawn attention to the 1,400 independent record stores operating in the US and thousands more worldwide. This year Crosley Radio is joining in the celebrations by releasing a special budget turntable known as RSD3 – which is absolutely tiny.

​At CES 2019, Sony unveiled a new turntable that merged old tech with new, including Bluetooth for wireless streaming. The UK's Cambridge Audio has gone a step further with a Bluetooth-enabled turntable that supports high resolution streaming courtesy of the aptX HD codec.​

Sony is mixing something old with a little something new through a Bluetooth-connected turntable that can broadcast the classic sound of vinyl through any similarly equipped speaker or headphones. ​​

Supersense has revived and refined an art project by Gebhard Sengmüller and Martin Diamant which sees users put a vinyl record on a turntable that results in sound and video appearing on a TV. Inbetween the two sits a VinylVideo Converter.

Setting up a living room hi-fi system generally involves getting to grips with cables, lots of cables. But the audio landscape has changed in recent years. Yamaha has introduced a new turntable that's designed to bridge the gap between analog and digital music formats.

​Dirt and grime in the grooves can result in a less than crystal clear listening experience when spinning vinyl. Record cleaning machines can help, but if you don't have the time for regular vinyl maintenance the SugarCube SC-1 can help strip the signal of its snap, crackle and pop.​

Vinyl music is riding the crest of a popularity wave at the moment, but buying an audiophile turntable can be very costly. Particularly when extra components need to be purchased. The UK's SME has you covered with its complete Synergy solution.​

No matter how well you care for your collection, records can be insatiable magnets for surface dust and groove-filling micro particles. A retro-cool machine called the Degritter uses ultrasound to get into the grooves and rejuvenate treasured vinyl.​

Austrian company Rebeat is looking to fundamentally change the way vinyl records are mastered, promising to bring what it calls “HD vinyl”, with longer playing times and better sound quality, to stores sometime in 2019.

Indianapolis-based Romanus Records is shaking up boring vinyl with records that contains gun powder and razor blades or shifting sand. The latest envelope-pushing idea from the label is an album that rocks its own light show.