Are Turntable Soundbars the Next Hi-Fi Trend? This American Audio Brand Thinks So

The stylish speaker isn’t exorbitantly expensive, either.

Published November 13, 2024

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Andover Audio’s Spinbase 2 is like a soundbar — or rather a soundbase — for your turntable. It’s a powered speaker that rests underneath your turntable and is designed for those who want a high-quality speaker for their turntable but don’t have enough room for a traditional hi-fi system.

Andover Audio SpinBase 2

Half an all-in-one turntable

Andover Audio, a Boston-based hi-fi company, is no stranger to innovative and modern vinyl solutions — it’s best known for its high-quality all-in-one turntable, the Andover One.

Normally, all-in-one turntables like the Andover One are frowned upon by the hi-fi community at large. Since all the components — speakers, amplifier, preamp and turntable — are in one box, there’s little isolation and vibrations shake all the components and disrupt the audio fidelity.

But Andover Audio has specially engineered its all-in-one turntable to combat these stigmas — it realigned the speakers, recalibrated the cabinet, and adjusted the digital-to-signal processing (DSP).

The company has also brought similar technologies to Spinbase 2. It just lacks a turntable, so you have the freedom to use your own.

(Note: The turntable in all the photos is Andover Audio’s SpinDeck 2, which costs $299.)

A plug-and-play solution

As its name gives away, the SpinBase 2 is not Andover Audio’s first foray into these “turntable soundbars.” It has sold the original SpinBase since 2019 and introduced the SpinBase Max — a bigger and better (and more expensive) version of the SpinBase — in late 2022.

Like its previous powered speaker bases, the SpinBase 2 is designed to be a plug-and-play solution for your turntable. It has a number of analog inputs: optical, USB, aux or phono. There’s a subwoofer output and headphone jack, too.

If your turntable has a built-in phono preamp, you can connect it to the SpinBase 2’s line-in connection. If your turntable doesn’t, you can use the SpinBase 2’s built-in phono preamp via its phono input.

Additionally, the SpinBase 2 also supports Bluetooth so you can stream music on the speaker when you’re not listening to vinyl.

A second-gen upgrade

The SpinBase 2 is very similar to its 2019-released predecessor — in fact, it looks basically identical — but Andover has given it a few cosmetic upgrades, as well as improved its overall sound quality.

On the outside, the main difference with the SpinBase 2 is it adopts the SpinBase Max’s heathered fabric grill; the original SpinBase had a perforated metal grill.

The SpinBase 2 also has a speaker array similar to its predecessor, pairing two woofers and two tweeters capable of delivering 270 degrees of room-filling sound.

The difference, however, is that each woofer is individually amplified (instead of using passive crossovers) and the SpinBase has nearly twice the power output (70 watts vs the original SpinBase’s 36 watts).

Price and availability

Andover Audio’s SpinBase comes in two different finishes, white or black, and costs $349 — it’s $50 more expensive than the original SpinBase (which Andover Audio continues to sell).

It’s available to order now.