victrola stream carbon turntablePhoto by Tucker Bowe for Gear Patrol

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Victrola Stream Carbon Review: the Ultimate Turntable for Sonos Super Fans?

The Victrola Stream Carbon is the first turntable that natively works with a Sonos system. No wires or extra components required.

By Tucker Bowe

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Victrola’s newest turntable, the Stream Carbon ($799), is interesting — for two “big” reasons. First of all, it’s by far the most expensive turntable that Victrola — an audio company best known for affordable suitcase-style record players sold by retailers like Urban Outfitters and Walmart — has ever made. But most significantly, it’s the first turntable that’s been made in partnership with Sonos, and can wirelessly stream vinyl to any of the Sonos speakers you already own. No extra components needed.

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I have quite a few Sonos speakers in my home, and I’ve been listening to vinyl on them for a few years. I’ve done this is by hardwiring my turntable and preamp into a Play:5 (which, along with the newer Five ($549), are the only Sonos speakers with a line-in connection), but you can also use a Port ($449), Sonos’s wireless streamer that also has a line-in connection. (There is a third way to stream vinyl on your Sonos: over Bluetooth. But you have to have a Roam or Move to do so, and it gets a little complicated.)

I’ve been testing the Victrola Stream Carbon for the last several weeks, and it definitely delivers on what it promised: it makes it really easy to play vinyl on your Sonos speakers. However, there are a few quirks that true Sonos lovers and hi-fi enthusiasts might also not love.

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What’s Good About the Victrola Stream Carbon

The Stream Carbon is an easy plug-play-and-stream turntable

victrola stream carbon turntable
The Stream Carbon doesn’t have a traditional power button. To turn it on, you simply lift and the tonearm and the record will start spinning. Then, you can place the stylus on whichever track you want to hear.
Tucker Bowe

Setting up the Stream Carbon and connecting it to your Sonos system is very easy. You assemble the turntable — which is probably the most difficult part, as you have to follow instructions to set up the belt, platter and attach the phono cartridge — then plug it in. You then have to download Victrola’s app, which walks you through the setup up process and asks you which of the Sonos speakers you want to link the turntable to. It’s really quite quick.

The beauty of the Stream Carbon is, once it’s set up and you’ve chosen which Sonos speaker you want to have it wirelessly connected to, every time you play a record, it will automatically start playing on that speaker and every Sonos speaker that it’s grouped with.

This Victrola is a pretty striking integrated turntable

victrola stream carbon turntable
The volume knob is one of the best and most convenient things about the Stream Carbon. It glows whenever the record player is on. And it allows you to adjust the volume of every speaker that is grouped with the turntable. You don’t need to touch the speakers or any app.
Tucker Bowe

The Stream Carbon is pretty to look at, thanks to its modern and minimalist design. It has a MDF body, a silver aluminum platter and mostly metal components — all headlined by an illuminated volume knob, which allows you to adjust the volume of your system without diving into the Sonos app. It’s a nice and easy solution. (If you were to physically touch a Sonos speaker to adjust its volume, for example, it would only change the volume of that speaker and not the other speakers in the group.)

The turntable itself is a semi-automatic belt-driven turntable. There’s no power button and to turn the Stream Carbon; you just lift the tonearm and the platter starts spinning. It’s not an automatic turntable, but a semi-automatic turntable; so it’ll automatically turn off when the stylus gets to the end of record, but you’ll have to manually pick up the tonearm and place it back on its perch.

What’s Not Ideal About the Victrola Stream Carbon

This turntable isn’t discoverable in the Sonos app

victrola stream carbon turntable
You need to use Victrola’s companion app to initially set up the Stream Carbon. There, you can select which Sonos speaker (or group of Sonos speakers) you want to play when you fire up the turntable. 
Tucker Bowe
victrola stream carbon turntable
The Victrola Stream Carbon doesn’t appear as its own speaker or component in the Sonos app. When playing, it does show up in the Sonos app as the playback. It’s here that you can group any of your other Sonos speakers with the main speaker that the turntable is paired with. 
Tucker Bowe

I wish the Stream Carbon was discoverable in the Sonos app, but it isn’t. The only time you can see the Stream Carbon is in the Victrola app — which is pretty barebones, and not nearly as smooth or intuitive as Sonos’s app. If you could go into the Sonos app and see the Stream Carbon, it would be a lot easier to group and ungroup it with the various Sonos speakers in your home.

Instead, the Victrola app allows you to pick one Sonos speaker to have the Stream Carbon stream to; if you have multiple speakers grouped together, you can have the Stream Carbon stream music to that group, but it has to already be grouped together via the Sonos app. This means that if you have a lot of Sonos speakers (which I do), you might find that you have to go back into the Victrola app (which again, isn’t super-polished) and go through the setup process to pick which Sonos speaker you want it to play on. It’s just a little clunkier than I wish it was.

$800 ain’t cheap.

victrola stream carbon turntable
Typically, I have a Pro-Ject T1 turntable and an external phono preamp that gets hardwired into the back of my Play:5 speaker. With the Stream Carbon, I just needed to plug it into power and wireless connect them. No extra wires or components needed.
Tucker Bowe

The Stream Carbon is a really nice turntable — it comes with a solid base, a carbon fiber tonearm and an Ortofon 2M Red cartridge (which costs $100 on its own) — but is it $800 nice? Probably not. You’re definitely paying a premium for the fact that makes listening to vinyl on Sonos simple and easy.

If you already have a Sonos speaker or component with a line-in connection — such as a Five, Play:5, Port or Amp — then the only real reason to get the Stream Carbon is so you can place it anywhere around your house. You’re not reliant on the turntable being close to the speaker or component for the hardwire connection, and thus you can place it anywhere in your home (so long as the Wi-Fi connection is good).

victrola stream carbon turntable
The Stream Carbon comes with a Ortofon Red 2M cartridge, which costs about $100 on its own. It’s really the only component you can upgrade on the Stream Carbon. 
Photo by Tucker Bowe for Gear Patrol
victrola stream carbon turntable
The Stream Carbon’s dust cover is interesting looking and a bit odd, in my opinion. It can’t attach itself to the back of the turntable, so when you’re ready to play a record, you take the dust cover off and place it out of sight.
Tucker Bowe

If it weren’t for the Sonos integration, I’m guessing that the Stream Carbon would cost in the ballpark of $500. It has the same phono cartridge as significantly more affordable turntables — like the Fluance RT83 ($350), which doesn’t have a built-in phono preamp (so buying an external phono preamp will drive up the price by an extra $100) — but you’re obviously paying a little extra for the Stream Carbon’s excellent build quality and integrated components (such as its preamp and DAC), too.

Also, I have to admit that while testing the Stream Carbon, I found myself missing aspects of my own turntable setup, which involves a Pro-Ject T1 ($449) and a Schiit Mani ($129) plugged directly into my Play:5; I missed the analog process of flicking a switch to turn each component on, rather than just lifting up the Stream Carbon’s tonearm to do the same thing. To each their own.

The Victrola Stream Carbon: The Verdict

victrola stream carbon turntable
The Victrola Stream Carbon is pretty solid. It weighs over 13 pounds and is made mostly of die-cast aluminum.
Tucker Bowe

The Victrola Stream Carbon certainly makes listening to vinyl on a Sonos system simple and easy — it’s very much a plug-and-play machine. It’s a striking, modern-looking turntable, too. And its coolest feature is probably its glowing volume knob, which allows you to adjust the volume of your entire Sonos multi-room system in one quick turn. The bottom line: If you own quite a few Sonos speakers and you like the look and simplicity of this modern turntable, then the Stream Carbon is going to be awesome for you.

However, there are also a number of reasons why the Stream Carbon might not be right for you. As easy as it is to use and set up, it would’ve been really nice if the turntable were discoverable in the Sonos app. The turntable really isn’t upgradable (aside from the phono cartridge), so it’s not really designed for a hi-fi enthusiast who is going to tinker with it. And it’s quite expensive for what it is.

If you already own a Sonos speaker with a line-in connection, like a Five or Play:5, then there are more affordable turntable systems you can buy. And they’ll work almost as well with your current Sonos system.

Pros

  • Makes it really easy to listen to vinyl on any Sonos speakers you already have
  • Flexibility of placing wherever you want in your home.
  • Striking and modern design.
  • Volume knob adjusts volume of entire group of Sonos speakers

Cons

  • It ain't cheap
  • Turntable isn't discoverable in the Sonos app
  • Components aren't really upgradable