Victrola is taking aim at the biggest compromise in entry-level vinyl setups with Soundstage, a compact speaker base engineered to sit directly under a turntable and deliver room-filling audio without the cable clutter or cabinet sprawl. After a hands-on demo on the show floor, I came away surprised by how confidently it blends convenience with fidelity—enough to make me take streamlined record player rigs seriously again.
For many new listeners, the vinyl decision tree has been stark: live with thin, all-in-one sound or commit to receivers, speaker pairs, and stands. Soundstage proposes a third path by packing full-range output and feedback control into a single slab that disappears beneath the deck.
Why A Soundbase Solves A Real Vinyl Problem
Turntables are sensitive to vibration. Low-frequency energy—whether from a subwoofer, footfalls, or the speaker itself—can travel back into the stylus, creating a feedback loop that turns bass into a muddy, rumbly mess and can even cause the cartridge to mistrack. It’s why many compact systems struggle as volume rises.
Victrola’s answer is a down-firing Symmetric Drive Woofer with a dual-diaphragm design and rear ports, tuned to move air without transmitting it to the platter above. The company says Soundstage identifies and manages problematic low frequencies before they shake the tonearm, preserving bass impact while protecting the delicate mechanics of the record player.
Inside The Soundstage Design And Key Components
Beyond bass control, Soundstage uses Balanced Mode Radiator drivers to widen dispersion. BMRs blend piston and bending-wave behavior, which typically yields an expansive “sweet spot” and consistent mid/high detail across the room. Victrola pairs them with a low crossover point so vocals and treble project cleanly without the boxy midrange that plagues many one-piece speakers.
The form factor is the point. By supporting the turntable directly, Soundstage frees up shelves and keeps signal paths short. Wireless connectivity is on board for casual streaming, while analog inputs allow a clean hookup from modern record players—especially those with built-in phono preamps. The result is a minimal, living-room-friendly footprint that avoids the usual tangle of gear.
Hands-On Impressions From The Demo Session
Pushed to lively volumes, Soundstage delivered a surprisingly authoritative bottom end with no audible rumble or “howl” transmitted back into the turntable. Bass lines stayed taut, kick drums had real weight, and the top end remained composed rather than splashy. For a speaker living inches from a stylus, that’s an impressive balancing act.
Off-axis, the presentation held together—a likely credit to the BMRs—so vocals and cymbals didn’t collapse when I stepped to the side. Imaging won’t replace a well-placed stereo pair, but the sense of scale exceeded its footprint, and the system kept its composure at the kind of levels that typically expose compact all-in-ones.
A Niche Growing Into A Category In Vinyl Audio
Soundbases for turntables are still rare. Andover Audio’s SpinBase helped define the concept with an isolation-first approach; Victrola’s spin leans on a novel woofer topology and BMR dispersion to chase a similar outcome. The engineering challenge is nontrivial: control vibration without neutering bass. Soundstage appears to thread that needle better than most I’ve heard in this format.
The timing is savvy. According to the RIAA, vinyl revenues in the U.S. topped $1.4 billion in 2023, marking another year of growth, while Luminate counted roughly 49.6 million vinyl albums sold in the U.S. the same year. With more listeners in apartments and smaller homes, space-efficient gear that still sounds credible is exactly what many collections need.
Who It’s For And What To Expect From Soundstage
Soundstage is tailor-made for listeners who want to upgrade from suitcase players or entry-level all-in-ones but don’t have room for receivers and bookshelves. Pair it with a modern turntable—especially one with a built-in phono stage—and you’ve got a tidy rig that respects your records and your square footage.
Hardcore purists will still prefer separate components for the last word in imaging and headroom. But for everyone else, Soundstage dramatically reduces the usual trade-offs. After hearing it under a working deck, I’m convinced: this is the most compelling reason in a while to take simplified record player setups seriously.
