House of Marley Stir It Up Lux Wireless review: Sustainable vibes

Finest Costs At this time: Home of Marley Stir It Up Lux Wi-fi

£349.99

The Home of Marley Stir It Up Lux is a trendy and versatile belt-drive turntable that provides an actual various to the cookie-cutter designs that dominate the entry-level market. The unit gives each wired and wi-fi (Bluetooth 5.3) connections and gives straightforward setup for anybody new to vinyl listening.

The corporate, run by the heirs of reggae legend Bob Marley, has made a dedication to utilizing sustainable supplies in its turntables, audio system, headphones, and charging cables. Home of Marley makes use of Forest Stewardship Council licensed wooden, upcycled materials, recycled silicone, recycled plastic bottles, bamboo, and recyclable aluminum to fabricate its gear.

The sustainability and distinctive design come at an affordable value: increased than the excellent $250 Monoprice Monolith 60046 wi-fi turntable, however considerably lower than the spectacular $499 Audio-Technica AT-LPW50BT-RW. The Stir It Up Lux has a couple of quirks, nevertheless it matches all of the necessary options provided by the competitors.

Design & construct

James Barber/Foundry

The Home of Marley Stir It Up Lux incorporates a stable bamboo plinth, measures 4.1 x 16.6 x 13.7 inches (HxWxD) and weighs barely lower than 10 kilos. It has a stable glass platter and an aluminum tonearm with an adjustable counterweight and anti-skate mechanism.

The turntable comes with the wonderful Audio-Technica AT95E moving-magnet cartridge with an elliptical stylus. Famous for its correct monitoring and low distortion, the AT95E reproduces a degree of element that matches the standard of costlier cartridges.

This evaluate is a part of TechHive’s in-depth protection of one of the best turntables.

The Stir It Up Lux has three output choices: stereo RCA jacks, a 3.5mm aux jack, and a Bluetooth 5.3 radio for wi-fi streaming. There’s a built-in phono preamp, however you may flip a bypass change should you’d want to make use of a standalone preamp or a receiver with a built-in pre-amp.

James Barber/Foundry

Home of Marley doesn’t present a canopy for this mannequin, so patrons might want to present some means to make sure the turntable’s platter and tonearm keep mud free. The $230 Stir It Up wi-fi turntable comes with an odd-looking fabric dustcover that may solely be positioned on the turntable when it’s not getting used. Given how unattractive that accent is, I wasn’t shocked to not discover it with this extra upscale mannequin.

Set up and setup

Home of Marley makes setup remarkably easy for freshmen, largely as a result of the cartridge is preinstalled on the tonearm. All it’s essential to do is loop the belt across the motor pulley, decrease the glass platter onto the spindle, and place the cork slipmat (extra on that in a bit).

The one sophisticated step is sliding on the counterweight and balancing the tonearm. The included directions present simply how the tonearm ought to steadiness earlier than the monitoring weight is ready. After checking that the anti-skate knob is correctly set, you’re prepared to attach and play your data.

Wired listening is so simple as connecting a 3.5mm aux or a stereo RCA cable and plugging into an amplifier or powered audio system. Set the velocity to 33 or 45 rpm with the entrance knob, and the turntable begins robotically while you transfer the tonearm over your vinyl document. The platter robotically stops spinning on the finish of a aspect.

James Barber/Foundry

Bluetooth playback is a little more sophisticated should you’re used to utilizing your Bluetooth audio system with a smartphone that robotically reconnects every time you energy on the speaker. You’ll have to pair the Stir It Up Lux every time you wish to use it wirelessly, however the connection is fast when you’ve pressed the pairing buttons on the turntable and speaker(s).

The slipmat I discussed earlier (and pictured up high) is a two-sided affair, with colourful photographs of Bob Marley and the Home of Marley brand on one aspect that create a zoetrope-like animation whereas the platter is spinning—after you soar by a few hoops. First, set up the Strobe Gentle Tachometer app on iOS or the LED Strobe app on Android. In both app, set the strobe velocity to 11Hz, decrease the lights, and goal the strobe on the turntable. You’ll be rewarded with an entertaining sample of transferring logos and Bob Marley faces.

It’s a enjoyable impact the primary couple of instances you give it a strive, and it is going to be a dialog starter when you’ve got a variety of friends. Finally, it’s a intelligent bonus function that neither provides nor detracts from the turntable’s efficiency.

Efficiency

James Barber/Foundry

I examined the Stir It Up Lux with a Vinyl Me Please urgent of Mort Garson’s Journey to the Moon and Pasta brand new compilation LP that compiles performances from the artist’s archive. Garson was a pop arranger who obtained obsessive about the Moog synthesizer and spent the later many years of his life making the instrument the centerpiece of his music.

The VMP urgent was restricted to 300 copies and got here in an unique “Pluto marble” shade vinyl. Vinyl Me Please is a web-based retailer that provides data in an up to date model of the outdated “Report of the Month Membership” mannequin. For a $36/month subscription payment, you join a class (nation, hip-hop, classics, rock, or an “necessities” monitor that covers all genres), and VMP sends you a brand new LP every month. For those who subscribe for a full yr, you may select eight bonus LPs from a catalog of 250 titles. If that’s an excessive amount of of a dedication, you may strive it out for 3 months (with one bonus LP) or six months (with three bonus data). Most VMP titles are pressed in unique colours, and so they handle to select a number of the greatest ones.

I performed Garson’s document on my system utilizing each the Stir It Up Lux turntable and a classic Technics SL-1200 with an Ortofon OM-10 cartridge. Whereas the Technics sounded only a bit higher, the general efficiency of the Stir It Up Lux is pretty much as good as what I’ve skilled with turntables from Fluance and Monolith that use the identical Audio-Technica AT95E cartridge.

James Barber/Foundry

I additionally paired the Stir It Up Lux with Home of Marley’s $170 Get Collectively Duo wi-fi audio system. Bluetooth pairing isn’t tough, however you’ll have to re-pair the turntable and speaker(s) every time. It’s only a matter of placing the turntable and speaker into pairing mode and preserving them shut collectively till they discover one another. The upside is that I skilled persistently stable Bluetooth connections.

Must you purchase the Home of Marley Stir It Up Lux?

The Stir It Up Lux is Home of Marley’s greatest turntable up to now. Its smooth appears and AT95E transferring magnet cartridge create a listening expertise that sounds pretty much as good because it appears. Ease of setup makes it a great first turntable in case your funds permits. And if you wish to improve its efficiency, you may bypass its built-in preamp while you purchase a higher-performance outboard pre-amp. You are able to do the identical with its cartridge.

Home of Marley nonetheless gives its unique Stir It Up Wi-fi turntable at $249.99, which is $150 lower than the brand new mannequin. There’s additionally a strictly wired mannequin (no Bluetooth) that was on sale for $129.99 as of this writing.

James Barber/Foundry

So, what do you get for the additional money? The phono cartridge is the most important step up, because the Stir It Up and Stir It Up Wi-fi include the Audio-Technica AT3600L conical stylus cartridge as a substitute of the elliptical AT95E on the Lux. The Bluetooth pairing button on the Lux is a a lot bigger knob than the tiny button on the unique mannequin, and the indicator gentle is way simpler to see.

The Lux’s total plinth is fabricated from bamboo, and it has 4 seen toes, for a extra trendy look. It additionally has a glass platter instead of the aluminum ones that include the less-expensive fashions. For those who’re seeking to digitize your vinyl, nonetheless, remember that each of the older turntables have USB outputs and the brand new mannequin has solely a USB-C charging port. If you wish to digitize data with this mannequin, you’ll want a separate analog-to-digital converter.

Backside line: The Home of Marley Stir It Up Lux is designed to make a press release, and its top quality simply justifies its value.