It can stream music from your phone and transmit records to Bluetooth speakers or headphones.
Did Victrola venture to pack too much functionality into one box, or is this truly everything you need?
Who Is the Victrola Premiere V1 For?
Kris Wouk / How-To Geek
The Victrola Premiere V1 is more of a premium product.
This isn’t a one-trick pony, either.
Fortunately, the company opted for a more subdued, modern look for the Victrola Premiere V1.
Kris Wouk / How-To Geek
The wireless subwoofer follows suit, matching a mostly black exterior with wood veneer on the sides.
Taking the main speaker/turntable unit out of the box, I noticed it was heavier than I suspected.
The dust cover is likely to be one of the more divisive design elements here.
Kris Wouk / How-To Geek
The design also means that some dust will make it through the sides and the open portions.
If you’re using the Premiere V1 as a soundbar, this could be quite handy.
Setup
Everything in the box that arrived carrying the Victrola Premiere V1 was carefully packed.
Kris Wouk / How-To Geek
Most of this is simple to follow, with only the platter installation requiring some patience and care.
This is a belt-drive turntable, and the platter comes with the belt pre-installed.
Once this is done, the turntable is ready.
Kris Wouk / How-To Geek
This easy setup extends to the subwoofer.
Again, there was a sticker letting me know that the subwoofer had been pre-paired with the V1.
All I needed to do was plug the subwoofer in and set the volume and crossover.
Kris Wouk / How-To Geek
We’ll touch on this more later.
What if you justbought a new recordbut feel like listening to it on yourwireless earbuds?
Victrola refers to this bundle, which pairs the V1 and the S1 subwoofer, as a Soundbar System.
Kris Wouk / How-To Geek
You also get a functional but very barebones remote.
I mentioned earlier that the Premiere V1 has a rather heavy metal platter.
Victrola also includes a silicone slip mat.
Kris Wouk / How-To Geek
For the Premiere V1, Victrola opted for its own Premiere VPC190 cartridge.
That said, it doesn’t have a replaceable stylus or needle.
The stylus is a wear part on a record player, so you’ll need to replace it eventually.
Kris Wouk / How-To Geek
Since the stylus isn’t removable, you’ll need to replace the entire cartridge.
Presently, it doesn’t seem that Victrola sells replacement cartridges.
The tonearm is stiff and lightweight, with adjustable counterweight and tracking force controls.
Kris Wouk / How-To Geek
Presumably to keep the design clean, the company placed the switch on the back.
This is a modest 6.5-inch powered affair, but it’s got a few tricks up its sleeve.
To start, this isn’t powered by a single 6.5-inch driver.
There are two main controls on the back of the subwoofer: volume and crossover.
While the volume knob is self-explanatory, the crossover could use an introduction.
The crossover basically controls the frequencies that the subwoofer produces.
You’ll typically set this around the halfway mark or a little lower.
The Premiere V1 is clearly tuned for music, and this gave TV and movies too much lower midrange.
Dialogue frequently had a boxy sound.
It’s still likely better sound than your TV manages alone, but I wasn’t initially very impressed.
Fortunately, things changed dramatically when I turned to music.
First, I had to set the crossover and volume on the subwoofer to verify I had them balanced.
Music Band’s “Day Stealer"proved to be perfect for setting the crossover.
I tuned it low enough that low frequencies from the initial guitar line didn’t leak through.
When the bass kicked in, I was able to tune it perfectly.
This is a song propelled by the bass line, and it instantly sounded great.
I was mainly surprised at how well the Premiere V1 system reproduced the depth of Stevie Nicks' voice.
This song can sound bad on the wrong system, but that wasn’t the case here.
Songs can sound narrower here than on other systems.
This isn’t a dealbreaker, but I did find it noticeable.
Should You Buy the Victrola Premiere V1?
First, decide if you want an all-in-one system at all.
If you do want an all-in-one, the Premiere V1 has plenty on its side.
What it doesn’t have is great sound for TV and movies.
If you’relooking for a soundbar, look elsewhere.
