Turntable

Each year the RIAA releases sales figures to try to show that their industry is dying and then points to a wide variety of causes. Dig into the numbers and you will find one bright spot for the music sales: vinyl. Not only are turntables back in a big way, you can get them in designer colors, like the red Pro-Ject Debut Carbon Turntable reviewed here.

The 3 series of Rega turntables is probably one of the best-selling turntable lines in the history of the world. Will this new model be able to sustain the momentum Rega has going for them?

SOTA is a turntable manufacturer headquartered in the Chicago area. They have been around for more than 30 years. SOTA's current management team of Kirk and Donna Bodinet took over the manufacturing and servicing operation in 1997. They manufacture a total of nine turntable models as well as a very popular LP Cleaning Machine. The model under review here is the Nova.

Recently in reviews, I've talked about the Loudness Wars that have infected many modern recordings and how music that I enjoy is rendered almost unlistenable by a bad recording. I imagine it might surprise many people to learn that most releases on vinyl require a different mastering technique than the digital release of the same album, and so many of the flaws of the digital master won't be present on the vinyl release. I tested the Clearaudio Concept Turntable with some modern albums recorded digitally and released on CD as well as Vinyl to prove my point.