3 Turntables and a Microphone: CAF 2023

CAF 2023 was awash with turntables of all shapes and sizes; but strangely very few that were actually affordable. U-Turn Audio? Don’t recall seeing them. Pro-Ject? Barely made a presence. Fluance? Nope. We did see a few Dual tables on static display in the Audiolab/Mission room, but not much else.

Roy Hall of Music Hall was there showing off new ADCOM amplifiers, loudspeakers, and some class D amplifiers from AMPED — but none of his tables were the focus.

Inconceivable.

U.S. consumers purchased the largest number of new records in almost 3 decades in 2022, so one would think that a high-end audio trade show trying to convince new listeners committed to the vinyl category that they made the right choice — might have offered a few listening opportunities with turntables under $1,000 connected to affordable systems under $5,000 and $2,500.

Apparently dealers and manufacturers did not take the pledge.

Instead, show attendees were treated to 10 rooms of VPI turntables, which is not an indictment of VPI who had the brains to partner with a lot of different brands, but very short-term thinking on the part of show organizers who left first time attendees with few options that might make sense for them.

There were tables from at least 2 dozen brands at the show, but make no mistake, affordability was not the focus.

That mistake aside, there were a number of new and not-so-new turntables that caught my attention at CAF 2023 and all of them offer very different sonic capabilities.

I spent time listening to all four of them because I am in the market for a final table to go along with my collection of restored Thorens decks from Vinyl Nirvana, Pro-Ject Debut Pro, NAD C 588, and Yamaha YP-701 that I acquired from eCoustics Vintage Editor, Eric Pye.

Do I have a turntable hoarding issue? Quite possibly.

Moving to Israel is going to be a blast with these. Sigh.

Rega Naia

Rega turned fifty this year and the British manufacturer has been busy celebrating its birthday with a number of new products like the recently introduced AYA loudspeaker and the 50th Anniversary version of the Planar 3 turntable. 

Both of those products, however, take a backseat to the realization of Rega’s most ambitious product since its inception in 1973 — the Rega Naia Turntable. 

The turntable took much longer than expected to get to market and that was probably fortuitous for Rega which had to contend with the pandemic, supply chain issues that forced some its customers in North America to wait 8 to 10 months for their turntables, and inflationary pressures on consumers. 

Rega limited production of the flagship and experimental Naiad turntable to only 50 units at £30,000 (38 have already been sold and shipped) and with so much competition from VPI, Linn, Clearaudio, Brinkmann, Thorens, Kuzma, and SME in that price range for a reference caliber turntable — it was going to have to think outside the box in a way to make the Naia more palatable to Rega’s customer base that is not accustomed to spending that kind of money on a turntable. 

£9200 gets you the table but no cartridge; users can add Rega’s statement Aphelion 2 moving coil (MC) cartridge for an additional £3465 on its own. 

Once the screaming subsides, Rega has decided to shave £655 off the price of the cartridge if you order the turntable with it pre-installed. The total damage on that comes to a rather humbling £12,000/$12,999 USD or $16,999 with the Aphelion 2 MC cartridge.

Now Listen Here demonstrated the Rega Naia with a pair of Vandersteen Quatro CT Loudspeakers ($19,200 USD), Vandersteen M5-HPA power amplifiers ($19,990 USD), Backert Labs Rhythm 1.4 Pre-amplifer ($12,900 USD), Backert Labs Rhumba xPhono Pre-amplifier ($7,800 USD), Innuos ZENith Streamer ($6,299 USD) and Meitner MA3 DAC ($10,500 USD).

The system was wired up with an entire cable loom from Transparent that totaled close to $15,000 USD (which also include a Transparent PowerWave X Power Conditioner).

Give or take a few bucks — one would be spending almost $110,000 USD for this system.

The digital portion of the presentation further convinced me that the Innuos ZENith is a superb sounding source; it is certainly not inexpensive but compared to some other digital systems at the show which were far more expensive — certainly worth considering if your budget stretches that far.

At $16,999 USD, the Rega Naia has a lot of competition from some of the aforementioned brands and having listened to 5 tables in the $10,000 to $20,000 range recently — it requires rather careful system matching to perform at its absolute best.

Placed side-by-side with some of the aforementioned decks from VPI, Kuzma, and Thorens, prospective buyers may wonder how such a lightweight looking deck will compare to the competition that rely on extremely heavy plinths and platters for a big part of their sonic signature.

If your buying decision is influenced by the double-double with cheese mentality, the Naia might not seem like such a great deal in comparison but Rega has proven more than a few times over the past 50 years, that it knows how to deliver more from less.

There is no question that the technology behind the Naia is sound, but in the context of “much more beef is better”…some might wonder about the pricing.

Listening

Judging sound quality at a trade show is a bit of a struggle; hotel rooms with paper thin walls designed to let you hear Bob and Delores from Skokie consummate their wedding night, external noise from hallway traffic, and poor acoustics never let you really hear a component or system at their best.

Such was the case with the Rega Naia.

All of sonic details that I love about Rega turntables are front and center with the Naia; pace and attack are superb, and the clarity is first-rate.

Bass notes were exceptionally quick and tight, but I was unable to ignore the absence of impact and the overall thin nature of the sound.

Based on my experience with Rega over the past 30 years, system synergy is extremely important and I am more than convinced that the Naia would have performed at the top of its game in a Rega system using the Aethos and other loudspeakers.

The top end was detailed, airy, and not even remotely etched regardless of the recording, but the overall presentation was not very full sounding and it certainly didn’t convince me that I was hearing this deck at its best.

I will be reaching out to Rega for another opportunity to listen to the Naia in a system that makes more sense and certainly not under hotel room conditions.

I’ve listened to most of the Kuzma range over the years at dealers and trade shows and I will tell you that the Kuzma Stabi R Turntable and Kuzma Stogi Reference 313 CE Tonearm with VTA Tower Mounting ($18,139 USD for the combination) delivers all of the state-of-the-art attributes of the Naia and more.

Yes — one does have to add a phono cartridge to the table, but this represents the top of the mountain to me. I fail to see any reason (even if one has an unlimited budget) to spend more.

The Rega Planar 10 ($6,345 – $10,995 at AudioAdvice); which I have listened to on a number of occasions is a more affordable pathway if you are in love with the Rega house sound and don’t want to spend $17,000 on an analog playback setup.

Cyrus Audio TTP

Cyrus Audio is celebrating its 40th Anniversary and it is brand that does not get enough attention (still!) here in North America. We have covered the brand rather extensively over the years and absolutely loved two of its most recent offerings including the CDi-XR CD player and i7-XR integrated amplifier. 

But where things get interesting with Cyrus is when you start focusing on its phono pre-amplifiers like the Cyrus Phono Signature/PSX-R2 which offers some of finest performance around with both MM and MC cartridges. This might actually be the best product in the lineup; clarity, detail, pacing, and overall presence are truly superb. 

All of that begs the most logical question. Why don’t these guys manufacture their own turntable?

Well. Now they do.

The new $5,495 USD Cyrus Audio TTP features a belt-drive and extremely robust looking platter and plinth that have been machined from solid aluminum blocks to provide greater stability. 

The aluminum platter is suspended on hardened steel axle which rotates on a new “ultra-percision” bearing that was created by the British manufacturer — with some help from another company in Germany. 

The feet are both adjustable and replaceable (for those who might want to consider using anti-vibration cones or feet) on the chassis that features internal damping compounds to minimize the impact of vibration on the platter and tonearm.

The Cyrus Audio TTP also features electronic speed controls (33 1/3 and 45 rpm) that are changed using surface mounted buttons on the front of the chassis. Playback is still controlled manually and the entire package does look rather neat — in a very dark, utilitarian way.

That rather hefty price tag does not include a phono cartridge and whilst some might bristle at spending $5,495 on a deck that requires you to buy your own — that feels rather normal for turntables in this price range. 

Rega, Vertere, Clearaudio, and Thorens offer decks that come with pre-installed cartridges in this price range, but there is usually a premium for that.

The all-Cyrus Audio system at CAF 2023 also included a pair of Spendor loudspeakers and I must admit that I needed to go back to this room because my initial impressions were somewhat mixed.

The initial press images of the TTP don’t convey the sheer heft of this table; Cyrus invited me to try and lift it and it was clear from the first attempt that the chassis and plinth are a solid chunk of metal.

An Audio-Technica AT-ART20 MC Cartridge was a last-minute addition to the system according to someone who was running the room and whilst it helped demonstrate the superb pacing of the deck; the rather cool tonal balance was less than engaging.

Later in the day, I returned and found that the sound had benefited from many hours of system play. Having reviewed a number of Cyrus Audio components in 2022, there is a neutrality to the overall sonic signature that can work really well if the loudspeakers are on the warmer side.

I rather enjoyed how their amplification worked with my Wharfedale and Q Acoustics loudspeakers.

The current generation of Spendor loudspeakers have a very different sound than the generation of products that graced my home for over a decade in the 1990s and with the exception of the Classic 4/5 — these require much more careful system matching.

The TTP does not veer far from that perspective and I’m not sure that the Audio-Technica cartridge was the ideal choice. Too much clarity and detail at the expense of some necessary coloration to flesh out the sound. The low end was almost non-existent with some tracks which was rather puzzling.

This is a deck, however, that shows a lot of promise; speed stability is excellent and its pacing is rather similar to lower priced Rega decks like the Planar 8 and Planar 10.

I really think that a darker sounding cartridge would sound superb on this deck; fleshing out the sound would not be the worst thing that could happen here.

Michell Gyro SE

When Fidelity Imports took over distribution of Michell Audio’s Turntables, many of us in the industry knew that this wonderful British brand finally had the distributor it needed to really take off again here.

More than 20 years ago, a Michell Orbe SE was my daily driver and for almost 3 years, I enjoyed vinyl playback at a level that I had never known before.

During those 3 years, I added more than 300 records to my growing collection and the desire to enjoy CD playback diminished significantly. My Copland, Audio Note, and Rega digital components started to gather dust on the rack.

The Orbe SE also caught the attention of my wife’s divorce attorney who demanded that it be part of any final settlement. Packing up the table, selling it, and giving fifty percent of the proceeds to my ex-wife was a rather bitter pill to swallow.

The Michell Gyro SE is a lower-priced alternative to the Orbe SE and it many respects — is a much better deal for the money.

Three suspension towers are fixed to the acrylic base to hold the suspension springs in place and provide height adjustment for the sub chassis.

The platter material was chosen for its vibration dampening characteristics and because sonically it is a very similar material to vinyl, so it has a very neutral sound characteristic.

The brass weights are added to give the platter extra mass and subsequently more momentum when spinning. This greatly improves speed stability and helps keep wow and flutter to a minimum.

You can use other tonearms on the Gyro SE (SME was very popular at one point), but the Michell Technoarm 2 makes the most sense and it finishes off the exceptional industrial design in the right way.

There are few tables as beautiful as this one at any price; the package with the Technoarm 2 runs $5,500 USD and whilst that is not inexpensive by any stretch of the imagination, there is much more to this table than just conversation-inducing industrial design.

The Gyro SE might not deliver the Usain Bolt pacing of the Rega Naia or the thunderous control and resolution of the Kuzma Stabi R, but what it delivers for one third of the price is so musically engaging that one could not help but be enamored with it for life.

The build quality is extremely high and it requires so little maintenance to keep running at the highest level of playback. Michell has tinkered with this design for years and it feels like they have it exactly right.

It delivers the weight, resolution, clarity, rhythm, delicacy, and tone that can make listening to vinyl so emotionally rewarding.

Steve Jain of Fidelity Imports knew exactly what he was doing when he took on the brand; expect a review in January of 2024 with a wide range of cartridges.

Where to buy: $5,495 at AudioAdvice

Related reading: See more coverage from CAF 2023