Sony's New Turntable Straddles Fine Line Between Vinyl And Digital

With the prevalence of MP3s and now hi-res audio, you'd probably consider vinyl records to be prehistoric artifacts. There is, however, a recent renaissance of the medium among audiophiles and Sony, one of the earliest companies in the music industry, is moving to capitalize on that resurgence. The new PS-HX500 turntable is anything but a regular turntable. While it of course plays those vinyl platters with outstanding quality, it can also let your convert those into outstanding digital versions so that you can enjoy them even when on the move.

The PS-HX500 is made from premium quality materials that ensures that your precious, and maybe even ancient, records are well taken care of. Thanks to the power of hindsight, Sony was able to design components and use materials that would bring out the best from those vinyl. For example, the straight tone arm has its stylus tip in the center axis to ensure stereo balance. The turntable also has an aluminum die-cast platter that is turned by a two speed motor. For blasting sound on its own, the record player has a phono preamp for connecting to an external amplifier.

But that's only half the talents of this Sony turntable. The other half is like magic, turning analog into digital, thanks to its high quality DSD (Direct Stream Digital) native converter. Now audiophiles will be able to enjoy those same tunes on their PCs or mobile devices on the go. Users will have a choice of converting music into lossless WAV format or Hi-Res "better than CD quality" Audio.

The Sony PS-HX500 comes with a companion PC software that makes that process painless. It not only does the recording but even lets users edit or combine tracks in post-production.

With all those features, it shouldn't be a surprise to learn that the Sony PS-HX500 premium turntable will come with a premium price tag of 500 EUR, roughly $540. Availability in Europe starts April 2016. No word yet on US retail.