Auris Audio Blues is one of the newest and – at the time of writing this review – also one of the most affordable turntables that is made by the Serbian company which is well known mostly because of their well-acclaimed headphone tube amplifiers. What is at the same time interesting is the fact that Blues is actually one of many record players that the Miki Trosic’s company has to offer. When we look at the Auris Audio current turntable line-up we will see that Auris has not only Blues, but also cheaper Funky and more expensive decks like Classica. Not to mention that there is also the Bayadere range which is also very interesting itself because of the price range that it encompasses. Bayadere 1 retails for 2,999 Euro, while the “middle” Bayadere 3 is positioned at 3,999 and the most expensive one, the flagship Bayadere 5 is priced at the whopping 13,999 Euro. The latter is actually the kind of a statement turntable by all means, since it has both a fully outboard motor and a and advanced design of both the motor chassis and the turntable itself.
Moreover, it’s worth mentioning that the Auris also offers both tonearms and dedicated power supplies and phono preamps. As for tonearms, there’s also a wide selection – from the most affordable option T809, through the Hawk W-9a and W-10a (that are, respectively 9 and 10 inches long) up to the Hawk 12” Silver and the Hawk 12” 24k Gold Plated (I’ll leave checking the prices to you here). What’s even more interesting is their approach to the turntable motor power supply design. In regards to that just notice that in their EON dual-frequency PSU Auris uses the DDS (Direct Digital Synthesizer) to generate those precise 33 and 45 RPM sine waves.
This clearly shows that Auris, when it comes to the analogue, not only offers products in the different price ranges, but they also seem to know how to use different technologies at different places so that those solutions work best for the effect intended. And that they are not bound by any of the existing boundaries.
The Blues turntable that we got here, together with the W-809 tonearm is also an interesting example of an analogue audio gear. While retailing at 699 Euro it has a lot – at least on paper – to offer. What we actually get here is that W-809 tonearm mentioned earlier, an acrylic platter and a few other quite important things that should translate to its sonic prowess. The price point is interesting too, being above the all the budget turntables, yet it’s still not even in the middle – looking from the absolute scale’s perspective – price range.
Obviously, when we add things like cartridge, which will be also another interesting subject here that we will get to, it will be around one thousand Euro price point. But still, we can call Auris Audio Blues a relatively affordable turntable. Even more, it may turn out that for all the vinyl aficionados that are looking for a new deck – this may be turn out to be the better choice than most of the well-know budget turntables. This is mostly by the virtue of the fact that Auris has incorporated some clever technology from their more expensive record players here. So, let’s take a closer look and see what is has to offer. Because – as always – the sound, together with every-day usability will be what matters the most.