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 perfect sound out of a document. 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 completely trendy interpretation of a gramophone. With its glossy 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 present promote its merchandise within the U.S., and from what I can inform, the Donut (such a terrific identify) isn’t carried by my ordinary 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 toes 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 one in all three sound sources. The bugle is embedded with a 10-watt, 1-inch tweeter. However hid underneath 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 properly that system is tuned, it might sound improbable.
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 barely 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 received’t be connecting it to your present gear. There’s a Bluetooth module put in, but it surely appears to be receive-only, so you’ll be able to stream music out of your telephone to the Donut, however that vinyl sound received’t be going anyplace.
Talking of vinyl (hear up, Caleb and Derek!), right here’s what you must 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 constituted of carbon fiber and exerts lower than 3.5g of monitoring power through an Audio-Technica (A-T) moving-magnet cartridge, although Fennessy hasn’t stated 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 document participant. I’m extra keen on the truth that it is available in a loopy variety of colours and designs. A typical Donut i5 is out there along with your alternative 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. When 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 are completed in an array of unique supplies.
I’m nonetheless not a giant vinyl man, but when ever there have been a product which may seduce me to the charms of analog sound, one in all Fennessy’s gramophones can be it.
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