Mobile Fidelity StudioDeck Turntable + StudioTracker Cartridge

Mobile Fidelity StudioDeck Turntable + StudioTracker Cartridge

STUDIODECK

Mobile Fidelity is the company from the 1970's and 1980's responsible for the Half Speed Mastered vinyl recordings which have become folklore. They still produce what is considered to be the best vinyl recordings available. Drawing on 5 decades of making the world's best sounding records, Mobile Fidelity has designed a range of turntables, cartridges and phono that continue the Mobile Fidelity tradition of getting you closer to what the original artist intended.

Designed in collaboration with some of the world's finest audio designers, StudioDeck features an incredible amount of ingenuity and technology usually reserved for much more expensive products.

The Mobile Fidelity StudioDeck comes with a Delrin platter whose highly crystalline structure presents a wonderful impedance match to vinyl records, effectively grounding unwanted noise and keeping it away from the stylus.

The tonearms are custom developed and manufactured in the USA. It has an isolated synchronous motor with advanced dampening materials that decouple the motor from the rest of the turntable.

The Studio Tracker cartridge is made in Japan. MoFi cartridges are designed by looking back at where a record starts: On a lacquer cutting lathe like the model used at Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab. They follow the same layout as the cutting head responsible for making grooves on vinyl LPs.They also produce the Studio phono stage which is made in the USA and replicate the wide bandwidth transparency Mobile Fidelity mastering engineers demand.

It’s only natural to use the word “Studio” in the name of one of their turntables, as doing so brings together MoFi’s software and hardware sides. And while it’s their  entry-level offering, StudioDeck produces high-caliber sound at a value price. Designed in collaboration with some of the world's finest audio designers, StudioDeck features an incredible amount of ingenuity and technology usually reserved for much more expensive products.

Mobile Fidelity adroitly enlisted Allen Perkins of Spiral Groove fame, who is said to have designed and overseen all aspects of production with Mobile Fidelity StudioDeck. 

Allen Perkins is a San Francisco turntable guru, whose own Spiral Groove turntables start at $18,000. Spiral Groove’s well reviewed and fabulous looking turntables routinely soar into the tens of thousands and legitimately have staked out their own corner of the ultra high-end echelon. One can see why Mobile Fidelity felt they had landed big fish, so to speak, when they empowered Mr. Perkins to see what can be accomplished using his wits on their new decks.

The StudioDecks construction starts with aluminium ruling the day with a wide plate of the material bonded to MDF plywood to form the plinth of the table and the appears again in the 10’’ gimballed bearing tone arm.

The aluminium provides added mass dampening in the plinth and rigidity in the tonearm and judging by similar choices made in high dollar Spiral Groove tables are a good indication that StudioDeck’s design is coming from a higher plane of existence. The StudioDeck is run by a decoupled 300RPM AC motor and you will find a ¾’’ platter and pulley system made from Delrin™ material. Delrin™ is a proprietary polymer material developed by the DuPont Corporation, the crystalline structure of which is thought by Mobile Fidelity to be ideal in effectively shielding the stylus from unwanted motor noise or vibration.

The StudioDeck’s inverted bearing is comprised of a combination of Teflon, steel, and bronze normally associated with more expensive tables that prize silent rotational stability.  Mobile Fidelity rounds out your hard-working turntable expenditure with a set of anti-vibration feet designed by Harmonic Resolution Systems to further separate any unwanted vibrations from your playback.

HRS is yet another highly thought of name in the industry that Mobile Fidelity enlisted to go ahead and get the StudioDeck right the first time around. The build quality and feel clearly exceed most anything you are going to find at its price point.

The StudioDeck’s sonic strength seems to be a well illuminated and well rounded mid-range that is able to faithfully deliver an analogue experience that will exceed your expectations given its modest price. The instruments are bursting with detail and the sound spills into your listening room with a presence not expected from a table in this price range. If you are looking for a laid back easy listening presentation look elsewhere. But if your music preferences tend towards faster-paced, higher-energy music of any variety the StudioDeck is right up your alley.

The sound produced by the StudioDeck would best be described as up close and personal.

The StudioDeck's general composure is assured, very clean, clear, and it just goes about its business of playing LPs without any hitches. Lesser turntables accentuate LP surface noise clicks and pops, the StudioDeck does not. The platter is made from Delrin, a thermoplastic from DuPont noted for its great stiffness as well as what MoFi calls its “wonderful impedance match to vinyl, effectively grounding unwanted noise and keeping it away from the stylus” certainly is a major contributing factor.

Vinyl is the most tactile of all music formats, so if the turntable feels awkward or cheap, playing music won't be much fun. To its credit, MoFi Electronics has eschewed any gimmicks and spent their money on things that matter: a great, sturdy, yet medium-mass tonearm; a smooth drive system; a fabulous platter; a fine cartridge; and outstanding isolation from vibration. Overall, the sound is just so right!