Review: Goldring GR2 turntable, arm and cartridge

Overview: Price: £265 Website: www.goldring.co.uk Size: WxHxD: 44x12x36cm Weight: 5kg Type: Turntable, arm & cartridge Goldring tone arm with gold plated phono plugs 33/45rpm speeds Goldring 1012GX moving magnet cartridge Plus points: Good quality arm and cartridge mounted on solid and reliably built frame. Very good value Minus points: Needs care to be taken with set-up and placement, manual speed change, no automatic arm retraction

Old school it may be, but there is something about vinyl that you really don't get with CD or other digital music. Pops, for one. Crackles for another. But you also get a warm, enveloping sound which takes in all dynamic levels of the frequency range. With analogue of course there is no cut-off point where frequencies have to be curtailed at the extremes. While these are supposedly beyond the level of human hearing, there is a subtle difference in the sound that we do hear when they're retained that makes all the difference.

You'll look long and hard to find a basic turntable included as part of a hi-fi system these days. And you can of course pay an arm and a leg for one of those monster turntables that looks like something that may have inspired HG Wells's Time Machine. But for a fairly low-cost entry, or long-overdue upgrade to an existing turntable, the newly upgraded Goldring G2 deserves your attention.

The GR2 once had a very close rival in the shape of the Rega P2, which has now sadly gone the way of all flesh and superfluous competition. Goldring sources some of its parts from Rega and both had the same plinth, platter and arm, but the GR2 comes supplied with its own cartridge.

And it's the cartridge that makes a big difference. It's a 1012GX moving magnet model, a high quality design that you'd normally expect to grace a much more expensive design than this and distinguishes the GR2 from the entry-level Goldring turntable, the GR1.2. It's attached to a tonearm that greatly resembles Rega's acclaimed RB250, though we're assured it's not exactly the same. The arm is fixed to the plinth by a large nut on a metal base and feels solidly put together. The platter, by the way, is MDF and sits on a large 18mm bearing. It's mass-loaded by a metal ring to increase inertia while it's spinning and thus smooth out any subtle speed variations.

Incidentally, your amp will require a dedicated phono stage, which it may already include. If not, a standalone unit such as Goldring's own PA1 (£60), which we used for this test, is more than able for the job.

The plinth itself stands on three rubber feet which can be adjusted to ensure the turntable sits absolutely flat and there's an optional clear plastic cover to deter dust and cut out any direct sound from the cartridge.

Performance

This is very much a hi-fi listener's turntable, rather than a substitute DJ 'deck' or dilettante's easy listening device. That button at the side merely switches it on or off. If you want to change speeds you'll have to physically lift off the platter to expose the rubber drive belt beneath, unhook it from one spindle and move it to the other. You needn't expect the arm to return to its cradle after hitting the run-out groove either - you'll need to pick it up and put it back yourself.

Actually, there is some sound sense behind this necessarily un-tech approach. Automatic speed change mechanisms can develop inconsistencies through use, or if they haven't been set up correctly in the first place. They also cost money, as do arm control mechanisms, and eschewing such luxuries helps Goldring to keep the price down. And unless you're regularly swapping between 45rpm singles and 45rpm long players, it's really not too much of a hardship.

The turntable is designed to be kept running during a session. There's no quick start or stop - it takes a couple of seconds to get up to full running speed and slows naturally when switched off. First however, we had to set the downforce of the tonearm, which is done by the circular counterweight which is screwed onto the end. This is not an exact science, since there are no markings on the counterweight, though there are instructions on how to set the optimum downforce, with a half turn equal to 1g of tracking force.

Once set up we were rewarded with that familiar warmth, but also a high level of detail which improved on CD versions of some of our discs and sounded completely unfamiliar after a session of iPod listening. Perhaps there's not quite the same level of bass weight as was evident on some CD recordings - if you're into dub reggae there could be more robust turntables (or phono stages) though even here, the mellow, analogue recordings sound somehow 'right' when reproduced in the way they were first intended.

Verdict:

But for the price, the GR2 is a beautiful piece of engineering that reproduces your records as they were meant to be heard. If you have a shelf-full of vinyl that you haven't played for a while, or have been suffering with an ancient disc spinner long past its retirement age, this is a fine choice to set you back on the path to vinyl nirvana.