In the event you personal considered one of Victrola’s high-end, Sonos-ready turntables from the previous couple of years, your techie document participant is about to get extra versatile. The corporate stated on Thursday that each one of its “Works with Sonos” vinyl turntables will assist Bluetooth, Common Plug and Play (UPnP) and hi-fi Roon streaming by way of a software program replace.
The replace will dramatically enhance the streaming versatility of the Stream Carbon, Pearl and Onyx turntables. In the meantime, Victrola says the ultra-premium Sapphire participant, which additionally helps these requirements, has already acquired the replace. The corporate says it can set up robotically, and the brand new choices will seem within the part of the app the place you beforehand solely noticed the choice to choose a default Sonos speaker.
Whereas the brand new capabilities are excellent news for anybody who spent wherever from $600 to $1,500 on a hi-tech vinyl participant, it appears curious (if not infuriating) that the premium gear launched with out these capabilities regardless of having all of the requisite {hardware}. And whereas the corporate framed the replace as a pure continuation of its mission to assist vinyl lovers, you may have a look at Sonos’ calamitous yr and speculate that Victrola calculated that hitching too many horses to that put up may not be the most effective thought.
An incomprehensibly botched Sonos app replace in Might led to months of downward spiraling. Regardless of quite a few makes an attempt to plug holes, the debacle culminated in two rounds of layoffs and the departure of its CEO and chief product officer in January. Though Victrola launched cheaper Sonos-less alternate options to the identical turntables months earlier than Sonos’ plummet started, it is simple to think about it nervously eyeing that mess and deciding now is an effective time to awaken the Sonos variants’ dormant wi-fi capabilities.
“This replace is a significant step ahead in our mission to mix the heat of vinyl with the comfort of contemporary wi-fi audio,” Victrola Scott Hagen wrote in a press launch. “The Victrola Stream turntables have been the most suitable choice for Sonos customers, and now we’re extending that very same easy streaming expertise to much more audio ecosystems. Vinyl lovers can now take pleasure in premium wi-fi flexibility with out compromise.”
