Released: 6th September 2022. The AT-LPW50BTRW is the newest edition to Audio-Technica’s line of fully manual, belt-drive wood turntables, providing all the benefits of vinyl with the freedom to connect to the latest Bluetooth® speakers or headphones. Enjoy optimal high-fidelity audio reproduction from vinyl with your choice of wired or wireless connectivity. The great thing about this record player is that there are different ways to listen to your music. You can connect it via AUX or phono output if you want to use the turntable amplifier, a receiver amplifier, or a dedicated preamp, meaning it works with both new and vintage setups. Some Bluetooth-enabled Sonos speakers can also be connected wirelessly to Bluetooth turntables. These are the Sonos Era 300 and Era 100, Roam and Move. What do you need to add a turntable to your Sonos system?

There are technological and audio advancements being made in wireless headphones all the time; I'd love for Bluetooth turntables to be given the same level of care and thought. Gives us young 'uns more choice, I say. And if that's an entry point into better sound quality and even getting into 'proper' hi-fi – well, that's no bad thing at all. The AT-LPW50BTRW is equipped with a built-in selectable phono preamp and a detachable dual RCA output cable to enable direct wired connection to components with or without a dedicated phono input. The turntable also connects wirelessly to speakers and other devices equipped with Bluetooth wireless technology.Connectivity is largely the same, with a selectable phono preamp and dual RCA output for wired connectivity, along with Bluetooth support. As mentioned in the introduction to this review, the Audio-Technica AT-LPW50PB has a phono pre-amplifier built in, the output of which is at the rear of the turntable. I'm being a bit glib, but that's essentially what it feels like. There's no app or way to select the source like you can when pairing Bluetooth speakers or headphones with your smartphone. You need to keep the headphones/speaker close to the turntable when pairing, but even when literally shoving them next to each other, we still had trouble making a connection. To test the wireless Bluetooth, I used a portable Bose speaker and Skullcandy Hesh ANC headphones. The portable speaker was decent enough, but, of course, speakers make up a lot of the vinyl listening experience and portable ones just don't compare to bigger setups. However, if you have a smaller space or a tight budget, the fact that you can connect this quality turntable to any Bluetooth speaker is a plus. Once you've connected your Sonos device to your turntable, it's time to get listening. If you're connected via a cable, you'll need to switch the audio source to line-in – you do this through the Sonos app. In the Browse tab, select Line-in, and then choose the relevant source. You can also set up AutoPlay so your Sonos system switches to vinyl mode as soon as your wheels of steel start spinning.

Selected items are only available for delivery via the Royal Mail 48® service and other items are available for delivery using this service for a charge. The red trace on Graph 4 shows channel separation vs. frequency and you can see that channel separation reaches a best result of 27dB at 1kHz (7dB better than specification), and maintains this level of performance out to around 6kHz before diminishing to around 20dB at 10kHz and down to 10dB at 20kHz. Highlighting the user-friendliness of the LP3XBT is its fully automatic belt-drive turntable operation with push-button speed control offering 33-1/3, 45 RPM. Flutter was measured separately for both speeds, again using both CCIR and DIN measurement techniques. At 33.33 rpm Newport Test Labs measured flutter at 0.05% (CCIR) and 0.045% (DIN). At 45 rpm, flutter was measured at 0.055% (CCIR) and 0.05% (DIN).The Era 300, Era 100 and Sonos Roam and Move speakers can also connect to a turntable over Bluetooth, providing the turntable has Bluetooth, of course. To pair, press and hold the speaker's Bluetooth button – when you hear a chime and the status light flashes blue, it's ready for pairing. Then press the pairing button on the Bluetooth turntable, such as on the Cambridge Audio Alva TT V2 or the Audio Technica AT-LPW50BTRW. When the LED on the turntable goes solid, you know it's paired.

Audio Technica has also announced the AT-LPW50BTRW, the latest addition to the brand’s line of fully manual, belt-driven wooden turntables for those vinyl enthusiasts who want to spend a little more. This new turntable also offers a Bluetooth connection for streaming to speakers or headphones. Users can enjoy optimal high-fidelity audio reproduction from vinyl using a wired or wireless connection. A handful of Sonos devices can be used with a record player using a wired connection. These are the Sonos Era 300, Era 100 and Sonos Five speakers, and the Sonos Amp and Sonos Port (for these last two, you'll need to add speakers). The Sonos Connect, Connect:Amp and Play:5 can also be hooked up to a turntable, though all three are discontinued. The Audio-Technica AT-LPW50PB comes with a clear Perspex dustcover and spring-loaded hinges. It’s nice that these are provided standard, rather than as an optional extra. The spring-loading of the hinges means that if you give the lid a slight push when you first lift it, it will rise automatically to the fully open position without further input from you. The AT-LPW50BTRW is the newest edition to Audio-Technica’s line of fully manual, belt-drive wood turntables, providing all the benefits of vinyl with the freedom to connect to the latest Bluetooth® speakers or headphones. Enjoy optimal high-fidelity audio reproduction from vinyl with your choice of wired or wireless connectivity. The light blue dashed vertical line at the centre shows the mean actual speed, which you can see is very slightly lower than 33.33 rpm at 33.324 rpm, so 0.006 rpm slow. Not significant. The purple and red dashed vertical lines show the wow measured according to DIN IEC 386 using both the dynamic method (purple dashes) and the 2 sigma method (red dashes). In terms of percentages, the measured wow using the DIN IEC 386 2 sigma method was 0.08% at 33.33 rpm and 0.07% at 45 rpm.

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Whether that's a codec compatibility issue or something else, the fact remains that the Bluetooth implementation and pairing process in these wireless turntables (which aren't necessarily cheap) is a letdown. It needs to be better thought out and offer the same seamless standard that we get in current Bluetooth headphones and speakers. Otherwise, it's a real frustration in what should be a really easy playing process.

Measured at 45 rpm, the AT-LPW50B’s platter speed was even more stable, so that the measured frequency varied only between 2998Hz and 3000Hz. Again, this is an excellent result. Newport Test Labs has plotted these variations in the speed histogram (Graph 1). Includes dual RCA (male) to dual RCA (male) stereo cable, 45 RPM adapter, rubber mat, and removable hinged dust cover The belt for the Audio-Technica AT-LPW50BT-RW turntable attaches to the drive motor’s pulley underneath the cast-aluminum platter.

Newport Test Labs measured the voltage at the line output of the AT-LPW50PB as 157mV for a 1kHz test signal at a recorded velocity of 3.54cm per second, which is about that specified by Audio-Technica but appears lower simply because Audio-Technica uses a higher recorded velocity than Newport Test Labs (Audio-Technica’s specification is 200mV at 1 kHz at 5cm per second) when testing. It’s a good result. If you're connected over Bluetooth, the speaker should start playing automatically as the vinyl spins on the record. Make sure you've switch to the right output on the turntable (Audio Technica says to use the Line output on the AT-LPW50BTRW) when using Bluetooth. The turntable also has a built-in phono preamp. This means that you don’t need a separate phono preamp to connect it to any audio system with a line-level input. This is a useful feature for people who want to use the turntable with a home theatre system or powered speakers. Final Words These two gold-plated RCA outputs have a diameter that is very slightly smaller than standard, so using standard RCA plugs results in a rather ‘loose’ fit and a tenuous electrical connection. You can fix this by squeezing in the outer (negative) ring of the plugs on the cable before you use them.