Regardless of being somebody who writes about audio merchandise for a dwelling, I’m not a vinyl fan. I go away that anachronistic love affair to my colleagues, Caleb Denison and Derek Malcolm, each of whom will fortunately eat a whole afternoon on Groups discussing the finer factors of turntable design, or any variety of different subjects associated to getting the most effective sound out of a file. None of that excites me.
However what I do love is uncommon turntable design, and I’m fully besotted with the Fennessy Donut i5, a totally fashionable interpretation of a gramophone. With its smooth traces and conversation-inspiring horn, it was love at first sight. However, sadly, I’m compelled to admire it from afar. Fennessy is a China-based producer that doesn’t at the moment promote its merchandise within the U.S., and from what I can inform, the Donut (such an excellent title) isn’t carried by my common go-to retailers for hard-to-get merchandise, like Alibaba. But when I might purchase it, it sells for 13,999 yuan (about $2,071).
So long as we’re all now window-shopping collectively, let’s dig somewhat deeper into what we’re lacking. The Donut stands 5.1 ft tall and weighs 66 kilos. And although it’s designed to resemble an old-timey gramophone, that tremendous, colourful horn (which Fennessy calls a “bugle”), is merely certainly one of three sound sources. The bugle is embedded with a 10-watt, 1-inch tweeter. However hid below the turntable is a front-firing, 40-watt 6.5-inch midrange driver, and a down-firing 60-watt 8-inch woofer. Relying on how effectively that system is tuned, it might sound unbelievable.
The Donut isn’t simply minimalist in design, however in perform, too. A single knob on the entrance controls energy, quantity, and enter switching. The turntable’s sign is just processed by the system’s onboard RIAA phono pre-amp and its class-D stereo amplifier, and there are not any analog or digital outputs, so that you gained’t be connecting it to your present gear. There’s a Bluetooth module put in, however it appears to be receive-only, so you may stream music out of your cellphone to the Donut, however that vinyl sound gained’t be going anyplace.
Talking of vinyl (hear up, Caleb and Derek!), right here’s what you’ll want to know: The turntable is powered by a Japanese-built, microprocessor-controlled DC motor at both 33⅓ or 45 RPM. It’s a belt-driven system that turns a 2.2-pound all-metal platter that’s topped with a customized slip mat.
The tonearm is constructed from carbon fiber and exerts lower than 3.5g of monitoring pressure by way of an Audio-Technica (A-T) moving-magnet cartridge, although Fennessy hasn’t mentioned which A-T cart it’s utilizing, apart from to say it has a 0.6mm conical bonded diamond tip.
In different phrases, it’s a file participant. I’m extra curious about the truth that it is available in a loopy variety of colours and designs. An ordinary Donut i5 is obtainable together with your selection of orange, banana, dragon fruit, crimson velvet, avocado, matcha, chocolate, or milk-colored bugles, with a black picket base and material grille.
However Fennessy additionally makes particular version Donuts, just like the Van Gogh, the Marylin Monroe, and the Quicksand. They’re all, in my humble opinion, beautiful.
Because it seems, Fennessy isn’t nearly modern-looking gramophones. In case you have a style for one thing extra genuine, the corporate has an enormous assortment of vintage-inspired designs, that includes extremely ornately-carved picket cupboards and horns which can be completed in an array of unique supplies.
I’m nonetheless not an enormous vinyl man, but when ever there have been a product which may seduce me to the charms of analog sound, certainly one of Fennessy’s gramophones can be it.
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