Back in 2019, Andover Audio launched the Spinbase speaker system for turntables featuring vibration control tech from its flagship music system. Now a cheaper version of that Model One all-in-one unit called the One E has been announced.
As we've noted many times before, sales of vinyl records have been enjoying a healthy rise in recent years, prompting many music lovers to dust off old albums and break out the turntable again – or invest in a new disc spinner.
Andover's Model One (now called the Andover One) is a good fit for folks who don't have the space to install a full hi-fi sound system, featuring a Pro-Ject Debut Carbon turntable atop an integrated speaker system made up of four woofers and two tweeters.
To prevent sound-degrading hum, resonances and other noise from affecting the playback quality of a turntable and speaker system snuggled so close to each other, the Massachusetts-based company developed a digital-signal-processing technology called Isogroove to reduce unnecessary vibrations and eliminate acoustic feedback. As such, the setup may cause analog purists to seek other solutions, but the tech has attracted much praise from industry pundits and listeners alike.
The Andover-One E system reduces the cost of entry into the Andover all-in-one universe by reducing the number of aluminum woofers to two while employing two dome tweeters instead of Air Motion Transformer tweeters to take care of the upper registers, and using a similar 150-W Class D bi-amp configuration as before. In addition to stereo and mono output modes, the unit is also reported to offer a panoramic mode that disperses the stereo image out wide.
The turntable up top is no longer a custom Debut Carbon Espirit SB, but an unnamed belt-drive model rocking a steel platter, aluminum tonearm, semi-fixed counterweight and an Ortofon OM-5e entry-level cartridge. The counterweight will already be set up prior to shipping though, so the One E can be used straight out of the box with minimal fuss. A dust cover is included.
Other specs of note include Bluetooth with support for the aptX HD codec, a USB port, analog and optical inputs, analog and sub outputs, and the inclusion of the company's Songbird music streamer for a limited period after release. A graphical interface to the front offers single-knob operation.
The Andover-One E music system is up for pre-order now at US$1,499, which is 500 hundred bucks less than the flagship Andover-One. Shipping is estimated to start in November.