Victrola Stream Sapphire

First Impressions

Victrola’s Stream Sapphire turntable builds on the already formidable feature set of last year’s Stream Carbon and piles convenience upon convenience as a result. A brief and slightly compromised listen suggests it’s got plenty going on where sound quality is concerned, too… 

Introduction

The Audio Advice Live show in a sweltering, stormy Raleigh, North Carolina is where I get to hear the Victrola Stream Sapphire (or the VPT-4000-WLN, to give its full and unmemorable model designation).

It’s currently on sale in the United States (where it sells for $1299), but as far as a European launch date is concerned it’s difficult to get an answer any more specific than soon. 

Soon is also when it’s supposed to become Roon Ready, too. But it has more than enough functionality to be going with in the meantime…

Design

• 111 x 430 x 345mm (HWD)
• Real walnut veneer
• Good standard of build and finish

At a glance, the Stream Sapphire is basically identical to the Stream Carbon I reviewed on this site in 2023. But while the chassis is fundamentally the same, there is an upgrade or two giving a visual indication of where your extra cash might have gone.

The main body of the MDF plinth is wrapped in real walnut wood veneer – it’s visually attractive (if you ask me), undeniably tactile and goes a distance towards justifying the overall asking price. The overall standard of build and finish is every bit as good as it is with the Stream Carbon – that’s to say it’s well up to standard.

And the way the platter is recessed into the top of the chassis gives it a nicely low-profile look which is only accentuated by the minimal dust-cover. Add in some height-adjustable aluminium feet with integrated dampening and the design of the Stream Sapphire is thoughtful and thorough.

Features

• Belt-driven 33.3/45rpm design
• Appears in the Sonos app
• Can connect wirelessly to any UPnP device

Just like its less expensive sibling, the Stream Sapphire is a belt-drive machine with automatic speed change between 33.3 and 45rpm. The straight 225mm tonearm is made of carbon-fibre, and features a bayonet-fitting headshell with cartridge already attached and adjusted. For this turntable, though, Victrola has specified the extremely well-regarded Ortofon Blue 2M moving magnet cartridge – an upgrade on the Stream Carbon’s Red 2M.

At the rear of the chassis is where you find the physical connections. There’s a figure-of-eight input for mains power, and a pair of gold-plated stereo RCA sockets for connection to an amplifier, powered speaker or what-have-you – the Stream Sapphire outputs at line level, which makes it able to connect to pretty much any system you like. But it also means that anyone with a decent phono stage in their system already won’t be able to use it in conjunction with this Victrola.

There’s also an RJ45 Ethernet socket here. Allied to the fact that the Stream Sapphire features Wi-Fi too, it’s easy enough to get your Victrola onto a local network using the dedicated control app. And from there, not only does it integrate into the Sonos control app as a source – meaning it can stream wirelessly to your Sonos speaker(s) – but it also uses Vinylstream Wi-Fi to stream to any UPnP-enabled product. And stream 24-bit/48kHz lossless FLAC files, what’s more.

These are features that ensure the Victrola has very, very few comparable competitors. In fact, off the top of my head I can only think of Pro-Ject’s T2 W turntable that can stream to UPnP devices losslessly – and even then, it has no Works with Sonos certification…

Sound Quality

• Smooth, quite refined sound
• Plenty of detail, no quite so much dynamism
• Complete wireless stability (at least for the time I listened to it)

Perhaps it’s just because the Stream Sapphire is so visually similar to the Stream Carbon I tested a while back, but subconsciously I expected it to sound similar too. And in some ways at least, the sound of the Sapphire is more than a little reminiscent of that of the Carbon.

It’s worth pointing out here that I heard the Stream Sapphire a) in a fairly unhelpful hotel room, and b) wireless streaming to a pair of KEF LS60 Wireless loudspeakers. Source music was mostly by Cannonball Adderley and Dave Brubeck.

They certainly have refinement and attention to detail in common. The Stream Sapphire sounds quite smooth and high gloss in its overall presentation, but it’s alert to those fine details of tone and timbre that go towards creating a complete picture. Stereo focus is good, and the organisation of the soundstage (which sounds wide and deep via the LS60 Wireless) is convincing too.

Tonality is on the luxurious side of neutral, but not fatally so – the heat the Victrola seems to introduce is mild. And the turntable handles the frequency range well too, modulating smoothly and giving each area its due emphasis.

There’s a slight, but definite, lack of drive and dynamism to the presentation, though – and, consequently, a corresponding lack of drama. Like almost every notable jazz performer, Cannonball Adderley and Dave Brubeck like to indulge in changes in volume and attack and intensity – but during my time in its company, the Stream Sapphire alludes to these episodes rather than making them explicit.

But it’s important to bear in mind that everything the Victrola does during my listen – and it’s gets an awful lot right – it does wirelessly. It’s sitting on a tabletop, a good distance from the speakers it’s streaming to – and there seems to be no obvious compromise in performance. Which is laudable all by itself.