I use small, one-piece wireless speakers every day, but when I have a chance to go back to a good stereo system, it’s like going to John’s Pizzeria after a year of eating nothing but Domino’s. With a good stereo system, the sound is bigger, more spacious, and more like hearing a real band in a club or a recital at a concert hall.
When I first placed my Music Hall Ikura turntable on top of the SpinBase 2 and dropped the needle on jazz bassist Christian McBride’s Live at the Village Vanguard, I couldn’t believe how much the SpinBase 2’s sound reminded me of a full stereo system.
Was I transported back to that time when I lived in Manhattan and passed countless hours in jazz’s most storied venue, listening to legendary artists I had always dreamed I would get to hear? Of course not — no audio device could replicate the excitement of being at the Vanguard, much less impose a one-drink minimum. But I was carried to a place more captivating than my suburban living room, with some sense of the Vanguard’s intimate, low-ceilinged ambience.
With most one-piece speakers, my brain works harder to translate the speaker’s unnatural, mostly monophonic sound into what I know the music is actually supposed to sound like. The SpinBase 2’s more realistic sound eases the workload on my ears; I get much of the same relaxing experience I get from a good stereo.
Victrola offers a similar product, the Soundstage, which I also tested. The Soundstage looks sleeker than the SpinPlay 2, with a more modern Danish aesthetic. It adds Auracast to function as part of a multiroom audio system with other Auracast-equipped Victrola products — such as the Tempo VPS-400, our top pick in powered bookshelf speakers.
The SpinBase 2 and the Soundstage both sounded good, but I preferred the more neutral sound of the SpinBase 2 over the Soundstage’s mildly treble-boosted sound. However, both products have bass and treble controls that let you fine-tune the sound to your taste, and both are much simpler to set up and use than a traditional stereo system.
