Page 55 - 2022-08-01 Sound & Vision

At a Glance

Quality turntable at a
budget price
Excellent pre-mounted
cartridge
Versatile hook up options
Setup is a bit fussy
Inaccurate speed as
shipped
No analog cable or leveling
feet included
Price: $250
monoprice.com

phono output or switch in the turn- The phono cartridge is a li le more restricted than usual, It’s a li le fiddly to a ach, but works
table’s onboard phono preamp, which is probably due to somewhat well once in place.
which outputs a line-level signal comes pre-installed stiffer than normal internal wiring. To complete the turntable setup
(both delivered via standard RCA and aligned. This makes it a bit tricky to find the you lower the pla er onto the main
jacks). The la er option is the way “zero gram” balance point for the bearing and stretch the belt into
to go if you’re connecting to a set of arm so I checked the tracking force place over the motor pulley. It took
powered speakers or a soundbar. ence (it does), but could prove using an external scale to ensure a few a empts to get the belt to ride
You can also use the turntable’s confusing for someone trying to an accurate se ing. Azimuth and between the pulley’s two flanges
built-in Bluetooth to connect align a replacement cartridge using arm height are not adjustable and without sliding up, but once it was
wirelessly to powered speakers the two-point paper protractor there was a noticeable downward correctly seated it stayed firmly in
or headphones—a convenient Monoprice supplies. The good slope from the tonearm pivot to place. The Monolith’s electronic
option for sure but why anyone news is you can upgrade the the cartridge. This is not such a big speed switching means that, unlike
would want to cram a beautiful pure AT-VM95E cartridge with a simple deal with the AT-VM95E’s elliptical with some turntables in this price
analog signal into a compressed stylus swap, so there will be no stylus, but is worth bearing in mind class, you won’t have to manually
digital wireless connection is need to change to a different if you want to upgrade to one of move the belt to switch between
1
beyond me. Finally, there is a USB cartridge in most cases. the finer stylus profiles. The anti- 33 / 3 and 45 rpm playback.
output, allowing you to connect the Se ing the tracking force is skating adjustment uses a hanging Speaking of speeds, a check
turntable to a computer, so you can done using the normal “static weight with a monofilament line with a strobe disc revealed that the
make a digital copy of your record; balanced arm” method outlined in that you a ach to one of four Monolith as received was running
Monoprice recommends using the owner’s manual. I noticed that notches on a rod on the back of the noticeably fast, with a speed error
the popular free recording app the vertical motion of the tonearm arm and loop over a wire hangar. of around 2%. There is no official
Audacity to do this.

SETUP

Out of the box the Monolith
turntable comes partially set up,
with the fiddly tasks of mounting
and aligning the cartridge already
completed. Curiously, I noticed that
the cartridge wasn’t si ing parallel
to the sides of the headshell that
supports it, but a check with my
alignment protractor showed that
both the angle and the overhang
were set accurately. (I suspect the
built-in offset angle of the detach-
able headshell Monoprice is using
was originally designed with a
longer tonearm in mind, requiring
a li le more offset for proper align-
ment in the shorter arm.) This isn’t
really a problem as long as the
alignment accounts for this differ-

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