A Look at Victrola – A Century Old Brand Still Going Strong

You will be forgiven if you have forgotten or perhaps have never seen the movie Out of Africa, released 40 years ago this year. The movie stars Meryl Streep and Robert Redford and is based on the 1937 book written by Streep’s character Karen Blixen, living in 1930s Nairobi in a marriage of convenience, but in love with Robert Redford’s character, a safari-expedition adventurer named Denys Finch Hatton.

The movie poster for Out of Africa 1985

Out of Africa was a very big deal winning seven Academy awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Sound and Best Soundtrack. Why I remember Out of Africa and I am now sharing this missive, is that the movie came out the same year I entered university. I had convinced myself that my years at university would be like the higher education portrayed in another classic film called Chariots of FireChariots came out in 1981 and tells the story of two runners competing in the 1924 Paris Olympics.  The higher-education scenes take place at Cambridge University, where the undergrads wear jackets and ties, eat in a mess hall with white tablecloths, butlers and fine wine, and the classroom scenes showed spirited debate where everyone was brilliant.

What I thought university was going to be like. A scene from Chariots of Fire

Let’s just say that my hope for a similar university experience did not materialize and my days at McMaster were surrounded by track pant wearing dullards. But these movies were an inspiration and showed an alternative world to the one I was living. As a freshman on campus, watching Out of Africa, and one memorable scene in particular, left such an indelible impression on me, it may be the origins of my lifelong journey as a hopeless romantic.

In that scene, Robert Redford takes Streep flying in a Gypsy Moth biplane (it’s the 1930s after all), where Streep sees Africa from the air for the first time.  The cinematography is stunning, the flight goggles and leather jackets are a perfect attire, but the part that I never forgot is when Redford lands the plane on the African savannah and sets up a picnic. You’d of course expect the wooden hamper, bucket of champagne and blankets, but when Redford pulls out a wind-up Victrola record player and plays Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto I knew from then on, my goal in life would be to go above and beyond to create beautiful environments and generate meaningful experiences for any company where I found myself. 

Robert Redford making a memorable entrance in Out of Africa

After that film, my dorm room was filled with oriental rugs, barrister bookcases, an impressive sound system and a handsome bar trolly, and my attempt to emulate a Chariots of Fire / Out of Africa atmosphere was relentless. That I didn’t get punched out on campus is a miracle, but that Victrola scene in Out of Africa was an epiphany to inspire elaborate, beautiful environments and while I wasn’t living as an extra in Chariots of Fire in Hamilton, Ontario, I could still be a master of my own imagination and never settle for sweatpants and apathy. Be Robert Redford looking cool, seducing Meryl Streep with a plane, a bottle and a player!!  Words to live by that have stayed with me for four decades.

I hadn’t thought much about Victrola or gramophone players in a very long time, until Erikson Consumer announced that they exclusively distribute the brand and asked if I would be interested in reviewing some of the products. I was somewhat reluctant to say yes, knowing many legacy brands have had a less than respectful treatment when reintroduced and often tend to get their historic name slapped on to whatever product is coming off the factory floor with no sensibility to the brand’s history or legacy.

The Product Marketing team at Erikson, assuring me that the brand is currently in the hands of a passionate, dedicated team with a mandate of celebrating Victrola’s legacy while modernizing the brand for the demands of a 21st century listener, suggested if I viewed the products not as a comparative to premium high-end audio, but to view the products as an entry to the world of audio, that I may find the products compelling. That’s the polite way of Erikson telling me to not be such a damn snob surrounded only by the best-of-the-best and have a look at products intended for the rest of us. Here’s my takeaway on the latest offerings from Victrola.

But first, a little history of Victrola that was first called the Victor Talking Machine when it was launched in 1901. Five years later the company was called Victrola and by 1928, eight million phonographs were being produced. In the 1930s, the company was purchased by RCA and the RCA-Victor company continued to thrive until the 1980s, most famously being the label of Elvis Presley.  There’s a brilliant PBS special, narrated by of all people, Robert Redford called American Epic that tells the story of the modern American music industry.

In this cut from American Epic, Elton John cuts a new song on the original 1920s recording hardware that was used by the talent scouts searching America for new music

The only way for RCA Victor to sell more phonographs was to ensure a steady flow of new music to play. At the height of the “Roaring Twenties” music scouts travelled across America in Model-T Fords with a single microphone, a six-foot amplifier rack and a live record-cutting lathe powered by a weight-driven pulley system of clockwork gears. The reason that most songs from the 1920s through the 1940s were three minutes long, is that’s roughly the length of time a musician could record their song before the weights that turned the cutting lathe would hit the floor. These scouting sessions were what introduced America to Blues from the Mississippi Delta, the ballads from the Appalachians, the Cajun fiddlers in Louisiana and the gospel music across the south. American Epic is a must watch for any music lover and a great history on how hardware manufactures like Victrola, created the “software business” to generate sales and demand for their players.

A brief timeline of Victrola

In 2005, RCA merged with German Bertelsmann Group known as BMG, that then merged with the recording arm of Sony, to create the largest company of recorded music in the world called SonyBMG. Around that time, the hardware arm that manufactured Victrola would be licensed to a company called Innovative Technology Electronics and within a decade, Innovative Technology would sell over three million vintage-looking record players. In 2016, Innovative Technology is sold to RAF Equity and moves Victrola to Denver Colorado, where the new company adds an industrial design team and in-house acoustic engineers, and introduces their first connected turntable by 2022.  All the products sent to me are new Victrola releases that were shown this year during CES. So lets dig in…

Victrola Century Signature Wooden Record Player $349.99

I started my reviewing with the Victrola Century Signature, since this is the product that is most reminiscent of the old record console players from the 1940s. This handsome wooden box houses a three-speed belt driven record player with built-in stereo speakers making this a true all-in-one player. Having waited close to forty years to replicate Robert Redford’s charm in Out of Africa, I lit a bonfire, pulled out the ingredients to make negronis, laid out wool and fur blankets and hosted an outdoor après after skiing.  We played albums on the Victrola Century Signature as soft snow fell in the Laurentian Mountains. It was magic and the best way to describe the Signature is that it’s a ton of fun!

The Victrola Century Signature playing Bob Marley outdoors with negronis by the fire

Records are not the only medium that the Victrola Signature can play. One side houses a cassette deck and the opposite side houses a CD player meaning this player can play recorded music on the three most important music formats from the last Century, in addition to Bluetooth streaming that the player can also accommodate.

In addition to playing vinyl records the Century Signature also has a built in cassette player on one side and a CD player on the other. Photo: Victrola

A soft fabric grill is period-correct back to the 1940s and the company offers the Century Signature in multiple wooden finishes from black, grey to oak.  There’s an analog clock on the front and a large swivel that toggles between the multiple music formats. Included in the box are 18” floor-standing legs for those that have limited shelf space. Personally, I like the look of the Signature more on a shelf than on the legs and for me this is a product to take along to parties.  While it’s not battery operated, I did have it outdoors hooked up to an external lithium battery pack for full Out of Africa effect! 

A period correct fabric grill and analog clock ad to the vintage vibe of the Century Signature

The word that keeps coming up over and over when I explain the Victrola Century Signature is ‘fun’.  Here’s a product that lets you play virtually any format and it costs just over $300 for a record player, a cassette deck, a CD player and a Bluetooth speaker. That’s a steal!

Victrola Eastwood II. $149.00

I have a fantasy that one day I will be a grandfather, and I will be sitting on the sofa with my five-year-old grandchild. There will be a roaring fire, a golden retriever by our feet and I will be spending quality time listening to vinyl, telling stories of the great musicians that we are listening to on MY turntable. Like all things in life, the sooner you start the indoctrination the more successful you will be in your conversion, so in this scenario I am building my grandchild into the next generation audiophile.  Since this child is five, there is not a chance that they will ever get their hands on my turntable, even though that’s all they can think of. Then for their 6th birthday, I will give them the Victrola Eastwood II all-in-one player with a handful of age-appropriate records.  My grandchild will love this gift, and it will be a great lesson in caring and cherishing for their first sound system.

The Eastwood II in cream fabric houses built-in amplification and speakers

The Eastwood II is another model in the all-in-one category of Victrola players and if the Century Signature is inspired by the golden days of the 1940s, the Eastwood is all Mad Men 1960s, being sleek and low profile. The Eastwood II includes a 3-speed turntable with removable dust cover in addition to built-in amplification and speakers. The player sells for around $150 and yet it features a $60 Audio-Technica AT-3600LA cartridge, while also featuring Bluetooth streaming for playback. This is about as budget as you can get pricewise while offering decent playback in a handsome chassis.

Photo: Victrola

If I was the in charge of customer experience for the hip W-Hotels brand, I would be putting a Victrola Eastwood II in every room.  Even if it’s never played it looks cool and it’s a perfect product to introduce the world of vinyl to a youth, young adult market. And in my fantasy, the Eastwood II would be the gateway to my grandchild’s lifelong pursuit of high-end audio that would of course end with inheriting my turntable in the hopefully well distant future!

Victrola Hi-Res Carbon $839.99

If the Century Signature and the Eastwood find inspiration in Victrola’s lengthy history, the High-Res Carbon player is a shot across the bow telling the audio world that Victrola is also very capable of designing modern, high-end components just as well as entry level gateway products.

Victrola’s minimilist Hi-Res carbon turntable

The Hi-Res Carbon is a stunning looking turntable capable of both 331/3 and 45 rpm playback, featuring a carbon inlay tone arm with an Ortofon 2M moving magnet Red cartridge. The player has a built-in switchable preamp, gold plated RCA connectors, a weighty metal platter and includes a higher end insulated and grounded RCA cable. For those that wish to stream vinyl to connected devices including Sonos, the Hi-Res Carbon features aptX Adaptive and HD Audio Bluetooth transmission. Another feature is an auto-stop sensor ensuring that after a late-night session you don’t wake up in the morning to see your album still spinning. Come to the end of the album, and the Hi-Res Carbon automatically shuts off.

The Hi-Res carbon takes its name from the carbon tone arm. Also showing the popular Ortofon Red cartridge

This turntable has a gorgeous minimalist industrial design with just one button on the front of the matte aluminium chassis that illuminates white when the player is connected to an analog source and blue when the player is streaming.

Adding to the minimalist esthetic is a flat dust cover that is placed on the platter like an album with a riser that covers the tonearm. It’s a design feature that I absolutely love that’s totally different to the typical plastic box that covers most turntables and adds to the contemporary and modern design of the Hi-Res Carbon player.

With dust cover

While testing the Victrola Hi-Res Carbon, I connected it via the supplied RCA cables to my Bryston Bi-200 integrated amplified with Totem Bison Twin Tower floor standing speakers. Even after cable manipulation trying really hard, I could not generate any buzzing from the player. That’s a first!!  Playback of my greatest hits 180-gram vinyl pressings of Miles, Coltrane and Sinatra were warm and effortless and comparable to players such as the Pro-Ject Debut Carbon that sells for more money than the Victrola but with less features.  For a player that’s under $1,000 and can be found on the street for under $800, the Victrola Hi-Res Carbon offers great value for the price but here’s the rub…

Remember when VW launched their ultra luxury full sized automobile called the Phaeton? That car was designed to compete and surpass in both performance and luxury against the BMW 7-series and the Mercedes S-class. This was Volkswagen going up-market and the Phaeton was an absolutely incredible vehicle. The only problem with the VW Phaeton was it wasn’t a Mercedes or BMW and by 2004, two years after the launch of the Phaeton, only 96 had been sold in Canada. In 2005, only 21 Phaetons were sold and that was after heavy discounting. On paper the Phaeton, like Victrola’s Hi-Res Carbon turntable, exceed the competition in so many ways, but both may be restricted by brand recognition and my guess is that the Hi-Res Carbon might be a tough sell, simply because it’s not a Pro-Ject or a Rega. But buyers that that are not influenced by brand recognition will own a terrific feature-rich player if they pull the trigger and buy the Hi-Res Carbon.

The stunning VW Phaeton Photo VW Canada

Victrola in my mind and after testing a number of their products, is a competent entry level to mid-market brand with no real competition in vintage-inspired phono consoles. What they do, they do incredibly well, and at a price point that really shouldn’t generate too much thought. I admire that the brand under their current ownership has also shown the world that they are very capable of designing and manufacturing modern designed turntables that can hold their head high against similarly priced competition.

After watching the Grammy’s last night and seeing the Gramophone inspired trophy that is handed to the winners, we should all be impressed that the name Victrola is still part of the audio landscape. The brand pioneered the audio industry both with products and recorded music. That this brand offers a product for youngsters to discover the world of vinyl for a few hundred bucks may just be what we need to keep this industry going for the next hundred years. Don’t forget to watch American Epic.