Cambridge Audio celebrates their 50th birthday with the release of the Alva TT, a groundbreaking launch - which also happens to be their most expensive turntable release to date. But is the product worthy of the price tag? We sure think so. The new ALVA TT Direct Drive Turntable from Cambridge Audio sets itself apart from any other turntable currently on the market with it’s Bluetooth aptX HD capabilities. Freeing itself from cables and wires, the “just add vinyl” motto comes to life when your Hi-Res 24bit/48kHz audio gets pumped out over Bluetooth. With a built-in phonostage, and a high-output moving coil (MC) cartridge, there’s practically no setup required with this sexy aluminum body and Polyoxymethylene platter. Rigid, dense, and stiff, describes the Alva build, but the sound coming through the one-piece, joint-free aluminum tonearm is smooth and warm…so delicious.
Watch Adam’s video below for a complete review of the Cambridge Audio ALVA TT Direct Drive Turntable. In the area? Stop by a World Wide Stereo showroom near you to check it out in person.
Join the fun with us over on our YouTube channel. Click below to subscribe:
Video Transcript
"Hey, everyone. It's Adam with World Wide Stereo. Today, doing a showcase for you on a brand new turntable from Cambridge Audio, the Alva TT. So this is the Alva TT turntable from Cambridge Audio. Current selling price is $1,699. This is a direct-drive turntable, has a built-in phono stage, and also has built-in Bluetooth aptX. So you can literally just plug this in and connect it to any Bluetooth aptX speaker or headphones and get true high-res streaming.
This is a very stylish and neat-looking turntable. Really, really clean look. The turntable will play 33s or 45s. Some key features of the Alva TT turntable are going to be this British-made single piece tonearm. It'll come with a factory-mounted, high output moving coil cartridge that's specifically made for Cambridge Audio, so you don't have to worry about setting it up when you get home.
This thing is virtually read to run right out of the box. The turntable itself is actually made from a really highly engineered plastic that has amazing acoustic properties, so there's no friction or vibration in the turntable. Up front, you'll have your power button and your 33 or your 45-speed control. Here on the side, you have your cueing lever, and in the back will be your tracking force weight.
Inside the box, when you unpack this, you'll get a small scale, and you want to set that to about 2 grams. Now, I said before in my opening, this is a direct-drive turntable. They did that because they want to ensure that, no matter what, the speed will either be set perfectly at 33 or 45. There'll be no chance for a belt to kind of lose its elasticity over time. This will always play at 33 and 45.
This turntable has a removable dust cover. So on the back, you have your power hookup here. You have a little switch and your pairing button. The little switch here is to engage the LED on the back to check the status of the Bluetooth, and you also have your pairing button here for Bluetooth. And here is your output. Now, the outputs here, I remember I mentioned earlier, this comes with a high output moving coil cartridge, so let's talk about that real quick.
There are two types of cartridges out there. There's moving coil, and there's moving magnet. But within moving coil, there's a little subcategory called high output moving coil, and that's special because the output of that cartridge matches that of a moving magnet, okay. If you use a true moving coil cartridge, you need a really special phono stage called a moving coil phono stage.
This doesn't have that, so you need to make sure that if you do change out the cartridge, which you can do to increase performance, it has to be a high output moving coil cartridge or a moving magnet cartridge. So, again, when you take this thing home, you don't have to plug it into a phono stage and your integrated amplifier or your receiver. You're looking for a regular auxiliary input, the CD input, the tape input. And you literally just add vinyl to this thing, and away you go.
Again, you can also connect it to a Bluetooth aptX speaker or headphones and get high-res streaming out of this. This is a great turntable for somebody who's looking to just buy a turntable, take it home, have minimal setup, and start enjoying music within minutes of bringing it home. It's also a great turntable for somebody who had limited space and is just going to use a Bluetooth speaker or headphones.
Not many turntables out there have a feature set like this. This is the Alva TT turntable. It will be available online. Or if you happen to be in the area, you can stop by our Ardmore or Montgomeryville, Pennsylvania showrooms. We offer a 60-day return policy, free shipping, and we're an authorized dealer for everything that we sell. If you have any questions, you can please leave it on that comment section below, or email, or call us at any time.
Please subscribe to our YouTube channel, and follow us on all of our social media channels. This is Adam with World Wide Stereo, reminding you to listen to music every day. So long. ♪ [music] ♪"
Also check out our best turntables award list.
