Victrola Hi-Res Onyx Review

Design

• Some assembly required
• Dust cover
• Comes in black

If you’re new to the world of turntables, the Hi-Res Onyx might be daunting at first. For one thing, some assembly is required, from attaching the belt, placing the platter and attaching the cartridge with the headshell.

You’ll also have to set the tracking weight/force with the tonearm, which can take a while to figure out satisfactorily. Stick with it, and there’s the satisfaction of having put together the turntable by yourself (or with help).

The build quality feels solid once it’s all put together. The aluminium tonearm doesn’t feel flimsy to move. The base feels robust, the veneered MDF gives it a good feel while at 5.6kg it feels heavy but not too bulky or hard to lift and move.

It sits on feet which seem as if they can be adjusted but I decided not to play with them, and around the back there are gold-plated RCA connections for hooking up to an amplifier before routing the audio signal to a pair of stereo speakers.

It comes with a dust cover but to be frank, I found it rather ugly and didn’t feel the need to use it much over the course of testing. Like Batman’s suite of toys, the Hi-Res Onyx comes in black and not in any other finish.

Specification

• Built-in preamp
• aptX Adaptive Bluetooth support
• Audio-Technica AT-VM95E cartridge

The Hi-Res Onyx is a wireless turntable, which means it connects to speakers and headphones over Bluetooth (there is no Wi-Fi for this model).

Bluetooth pairing is easy enough to get your head around. With the turntable put into its pairing mode first, followed by putting your headphone and speaker into pairing mode you wait for the two to find each other. It might be best to disconnect from your original device first…

As it’s wireless, there’s no means of connecting a wired headphone to the Hi-Res Onyx. That decision is made up by the provision of aptX Adaptive Bluetooth, which allows for higher quality transmission of audio over Bluetooth. However, that’s only available to Android devices, as iOS devices do not support anything above AAC Bluetooth.

There is an auto-stop mechanism for those too lazy to get up from the comfort of the sofa once the record has ended (it’s also there to stop stylus wear), though it has to be switched around the rear of the record player.

There’s also a switch if you want to add a phono stage to the turntable. I didn’t have one on, so I relied on the built-in preamplifier of the Onyx.

The cartridge is an Audio-Technica AT-VM95E, an affordable, well-regarded cartridge in the turntable world. Different versions of the Onyx seem to come with a different cartridge, but having stared at the manual for a few minutes, I can only imagine these are regional differences rather than any other option available in the UK market.

Although there’s an auto-stop feature, this isn’t an automatic turntable. The tonearm has to be manually lifted and placed on the record, with the turntable supporting 33/45 RPM which you can change with the flick of a switch.

The Hi-Res Onyx sets itself up as an easy-to-use, unfussy record player. But how does it sound?

Performance

• Clear midrange
• Spacious soundstage
• Slightly inconsistent bass

I play over Bluetooth and through an amplifier (Cambridge Audio CXA61) to a pair of Q Acoustics 3010i stereo speakers, and the Victrola Hi-Res Onyx is… quite good for the £399 / $399 asking price.

Starting with Phoebe Bridgers’ Punisher, the Hi-Res Onyx sets its stall out with a really clear midrange performance. There’s some nuance in capturing the small and soft details in her vocal performance and good amounts of detail laid up as well. It doesn’t sound as warm as I was expecting for vinyl playback, with decent weight and warmth to the low frequencies too.

I wouldn’t describe it as the sharpest or most detailed performance, but the Audio-Technica cartridge can dig out an enjoyable amount of detail from the grooves of the record. The resulting smooth midrange performance, and the decent dynamism that’s present in her voice make for a convincing presentation. The midrange is the best part of the Victrola’s performance.

It’s a spacious soundstage too, though its sense of organisation and placement within a stereo image doesn’t feel the most defined, with a slight vagueness to the overall stereo image.

There’s a lack of punch at the low end. The End is Near features bass that’s reproduced in a slightly soft manner.

But there are enjoyable amounts of energy retrieved from Prince’s Let’s Go Crazy. Again, it’s not the most detailed or defined, but it’s fun and engaging with a weighty bass that ends the track. The Victrola’s bass performance makes me wonder whether it’s a little more convincing at handling bass when it’s delivered in a more obvious manner rather than subtly.

There’s decent (there’s that word again) detail extracted from the highs, a good vocal performance from Prince that’s smooth and warm, while the Victrola manages to keep up with the rhythm and tempo of the track to generate a good sense of energy all the way through not just the track but the album in its entirety.

Listening over Bluetooth with a pair of Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S2e over aptX Adaptive Bluetooth and I don’t fall prey to any dropouts walking through the house. It’s a strong, stable connection wherever I am.

The sound is delivered in clear and wide terms – it seems to favour higher frequencies, which may be a reflection of the headphones I’m using. Compared to listening over Bluetooth via my smartphone, it’s not as clear or as detailed, and the presence of that signature vinyl pop and crackle can be a touch annoying if you’re expecting a ‘clean’ performance; though I found it to be in the background and not annoying.

It’s a clear, respectable sound; with satisfying levels of detail, and the tone struck with voices and instruments sounding more natural than not.

The area where it feels weakest over Bluetooth is with the lows. Bass lacks depth, so tracks with more of a bass-heavy presence feel lightweight. That lack of punch with vinyl also carries over on a Bluetooth connection with The End Is Near, and that track also shows up a similar issue with vague soundstage through analogue listening where it struggles to unearth all the detail and clarity within that track.

Should you buy it?