Andover Audio Spinbase
Andover Audio Spinbase
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Free Shipping On All Orders, No Minimums.
We offer free 2-day shipping on most products within the continental US.
Weekdays - Orders placed by 2pm EST ship same day. Orders placed after 2pm EST will ship the following business day.
Weekends - Orders placed on Saturday and Sunday will ship Monday.
Orders requiring motor freight delivery may take more than two business days. Once your order has shipped, you'll receive a shipping confirmation email with a tracking number for easy tracking.
Orders that contain items that are currently backordered, special order, or out of stock will ship complete once all items are in-stock unless otherwise requested.
If you need it faster, you will have the option of choosing a quicker shipping option when you checkout on the website.
At this time, we do not ship internationally and orders to Hawaii and Alaska may incur an additional shipping charge. Please contact us at 888.899.8776 or email support@audioadvice.com to confirm.
Rerouting and Address Changes
We cannot make ANY address changes once an order is placed. If you are unable to accept delivery of your package as ordered, we will need to cancel your order, return the package to sender and have you replace your order through our website.
Keep the Box
We suggest you keep the shipping box or boxes for at least 30 days. It is actually a great idea to keep boxes for audio products for the life of the product. Having the box and all packing will increase the trade-in value should you decide to move up and they are handy to have should you ever need to send the unit in for repair.
How To Receive a Motor Freight Order
The trucking company will contact you to schedule a convenient time to deliver the order. Please note that you must be present for delivery.
Visually inspect the box to make sure you see no signs of damage. If you notice any damage at all, take some pictures with your phone and make a note of them on the delivery receipt the driver will ask you to sign. If it is obvious that the product is damaged, please refuse the order and contact us immediately at 888.899.8776 or email support@audioadvice.com.
Open your box as soon as possible and inspect the product for damage and contact us if you find anything wrong.
uShip In-Home Delivery
Due to current concerns surrounding COVID-19, uShip is able to offer THRESHOLD SERVICE ONLY at this time. To ensure everyone’s safety, uShip is advising carriers to refrain from making room-of-choice deliveries. Threshold service consists of the shipment being brought into the first door of the address or the lobby of an apartment/condo, and does not include set-up, installation, assembly or debris removal.
What to Expect: Most oversized items will be delivered within 2-3 weeks. Your carrier will place your item inside the first door of the address or the lobby of an apartment/condo.
Appointment Scheduling: Your delivery partner will call 24-48 hours prior to delivery to arrange an appointment window.
How to prepare for in-home delivery:
- Determine the clearest path from the street to your home
- Measure entrances and hallways to ensure your item will fit
- Remove any wall hangings or clutter to ensure a clear path and to prevent damages
- Remove old furnishings to allow placement for your new piece
Check your furniture for damages: We rarely expect damaged furniture, but in the instance it does happen, we have you covered. Once your item’s packaging is removed, check for any damages that may have occurred in transit. Take pictures of any damages and notate appropriately on the delivery receipt. Keep possession of the damaged piece and contact us via phone or email and we’ll start the process to repair/replace your new piece of furniture. For uShip customer support, please call 800-698-7447.
At Audio Advice, we pride ourselves on customer satisfaction. We'll bend over backward to make sure you're 100% satisfied and we won't accept anything less. We offer 30-day hassle-free returns and personalized service from real, live people.
If an item doesn't meet your expectations, you may return or exchange it in its original condition and packaging within 30 days for a full refund, minus shipping fees. Items shipped back in like new condition through standard shipping carriers will only incur a flat fee of $15 to return. If the items were initially shipped through free scheduled delivery via motor freight (commonly referred to as LTL), returning them will result in return shipping fees starting at $150. These items include but are not limited to, oversized items such as TVs, certain subwoofers, floorstanding speakers, furniture, and most items weighing over 75 pounds. Return fees will also apply for exchanges. We want to treat your system as if it is our own and want you to be completely satisfied with your purchase.
Please see the instructions below. We only accept returns for any product purchased directly from our website. If merchandise is not returned in its original condition or is missing packaging, manuals, accessories or other parts, or the resale value of the product has been impaired, a partial refund will be given and calculated on a case-by-case basis.
Non-Returnable Items
The following items cannot be returned or cancelled:
- Special/Custom Order Items
- Open Box Products
- Gift Cards
- In-ear headphones cannot be returned once the packaging has been opened due to personal hygiene reasons. Please contact our customer care team if you'd like help choosing.
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Turntables With a Broken Stylus: All turntables ship out with the stylus intact. If you return a turntable or phono cartridge with a broken or missing stylus you will be subject to a return fee. Please be careful when setting up your turntable and contact us with any questions.
Is It Easy To Return An Item?
Yes, simply give us a call at 888.899.8776 or you can email our support team at support@audioadvice.com. Many times our team of experts can help figure out why the product might not be working like you expected and get things fixed over the phone, so don’t be surprised if we ask a few questions, we love troubleshooting!
If our tech help can not make you happy, we will email over a return shipping label with a Return Number.
Hopefully, you saved all of the original item’s box and packaging inserts. You will want to pack back up your return or exchange in the same way it came out of the original box. Once you have everything packaged correctly, tape the box on the top and bottom to assure it stays together. If Audio Advice shipped the item to you inside a second box, it's a good idea to use that same extra box to help prevent damage on its way back to us. To avoid it accidentally coming back to you, use a magic marker to cross out the old shipping label or just tear it off.
The return shipping label we send you will have our address on it, just make sure you take the box to the right shipper (UPS, FEDEX, or USPS) as per the label.
If you are close to one of our stores, please let us know if it is more convenient for you to return it to us directly. You will still need to get a return number by contacting us and shipping and/or restocking charges may apply.
When Will I See My Refund?
It usually takes around 7-14 days for the refund to show up on the payment method you used. We do inspect all returns for damage and accuracy of the item inside the box before issuing a refund. Some items may be subject to shipping and restocking fees.
Can I Exchange My Purchase For Something Different?
Sometimes those big speakers just don’t fit in the room or you might have bought a small subwoofer and later found out you’d love a bigger one. If you would like to make an exchange within 30 days of receiving your item, just give us a call at 888.899.8776 or email support@audioadvice.com and we will help work out the details. Additional shipping charges and return costs may apply.
How Do I Cancel An Order?
If the item has already shipped out or is a special order item, it is not possible to cancel the order. Please contact us at 888.899.8776 or email support@audioadvice.com to start the return process.
What If I Find Shipping Damage?
We need to know right away about any shipping damage. Please contact us at 888.899.8776 or email support@audioadvice.com within 48 hours of your delivery so we can get the ball rolling on making things right. It’s very helpful to take some pictures and email them to us if possible.
Can I Refuse A Shipment?
You can, but unless the item is damaged, shipping and restocking fees will be deducted from your refund. If your item arrives damaged and you are lucky enough to be there, snap some quick pics and refuse the order. Then contact us so we can get a replacement on the way.
What Happens If My Order Is Defective?
This is actually pretty rare, most consumer electronics work fine out of the box 99.9% of the time. We’d like for you to contact us first by calling 888.899.8776 or email support@audioadvice.com so we can help get to the bottom of things. If your item is indeed defective during the first 30 days, we can usually exchange it for a new, replacement unit.
What About Service After 30 Days?
Audio Advice has a great relationship with all of our brands and can help you with warranty service by the brand after our 30-day guarantee period. Even after the warranty expires, we can arrange for service by the brand on products purchased from Audio Advice. Just call 888.899.8776 or email support@audioadvice.com.
How Do You Determine A Restocking Fee?
You may not believe it, but sometimes we receive items back that were put in the box with zero packaging and are completely destroyed or are missing many of the pieces that came with the item. We also track serial numbers and will get back different serial numbers. We’ve even seen different items than what we shipped out be returned. However, it’s very important to package your return properly so that nothing goes missing or gets damaged in shipping, which will result in a restocking fee or even no refund at all. If a product is opened and the market value of the product is reduced, then a restocking fee may be applied to the cost of restocking and the reduced market value of the product. The bottom line is if you treat us fairly, we will do the same.
Audio Advice strives to provide industry-leading support and service while also maintaining the lowest prices available on products for our customers. We work hard with our vendors to bring our customers the best products at each price point. As a part of that process, we work with our vendors to provide the lowest pricing in our stores and on our website.
Our prices should always be the same as any other authorized dealer, including big-box retailers and major online retailers.
If you believe that you have found a lower advertised price from a legitimate authorized seller, call us and let us know so we can make sure we can correct any inadvertent error on our side. As a matter of policy, we update our prices automatically if a vendor changes its authorized pricing policies, so we generally have the best prices all the time. Increasingly, there are knock-off copies of products online, usually sold by non-authorized dealers.
Please be sure that the item meets the following conditions:
- The item is brand new, in stock, and available for purchase
- The item has the identical model number, color, etc as the item on our site.
- The seller is an authorized dealer
As always, our goal is to provide a terrific customer experience, including industry low prices. We appreciate your support.
Overview
Company & Product Overview
Andover Audio is a pretty interesting company. They were founded in 2012 by several home technology industry veterans led by Rob Mainiero, formerly with Cambridge Soundworks. This team of designers and engineers from the likes of Apogee Acoustics, Acoustic Research, Harman, Bose, and a/d/s/ set out to be more of an OEM designer and manufacturer for the telecommunications, automotive, and high-performance audio industry.
With their fingers in multiple parts of the consumer electronics industry, the team based in North Andover, MA realized there was a huge growth happening in the resurgence of vinyl and a lack of super high-quality all-in-one vinyl playback system. The big issue of having an all-in-one unit is, of course, the fact that it's not a good idea to have your turntable super close to your speakers.
The Andover Audio engineers set out to solve this problem and did so with a new technology they call Isogroove™. This great tech allowed them to put a turntable directly on top of the pair of speakers. Andover Audio then teamed up with Pro-Ject Audio and coupled their Debut Carbon Esprit turntable with their isolation tech and a great amplifier/speaker combination.
The result was the Model 1, which was introduced in the fall of 2019 and immediately received tons of accolades from the audio press. This $2,500 all-in-one player is very compact and offered a full array of connections for today’s listener.
The Isogroove™ tech was too good to just relegate to a $2,500 player and they saw a much bigger potential to scale back the speaker package and design a box you could place your existing turntable on top of. Towards the end of 2019, they introduced the Spinbase, which is the subject of today’s review.
The Spinbase is an all-in-one speaker system in a very compact package that’s about the same width and depth as a typical turntable.
Spinbase Design & Build Quality
The Spinbase has a fairly retro look to it. It is available in a black or white finish and has a single large knob in the middle. At 18” wide, 13 ½” deep and about 3 ¼” tall, the size will accommodate just about any turntable you would likely use with the Spinbase.
A finely perforated metal grill wraps around three sides of the unit with more controls and inputs on the back. There is a large Andover Audio logo right on the top that your turntable will cover-up.
Since it's a little deeper than a typical bookcase, especially after you leave room for your turntable connection plugs, the Spinbase will not fit on a normal 12” deep bookshelf but will be right at home on any tabletop, desktop, or a small table.
Build quality is very good for the price of the Spinbase. It's not like you would get on a $1,600 Naim all-in-one unit or $3,000 McIntosh, but for the price, it is pretty darn good. The volume control feels solid and there is absolutely no wiggle or wobble in it. The rear input connectors are pretty standard for what you would expect in this price category. You will need to have it fairly close to an AC outlet as the power supply is an external wall wart with a fairly short cord of about 5’ in length. Or, you could simply use an extension cord to extend it.
Overall, we love the look and feel of the Spinbase. Just about every turntable we plopped down on top of it looked great. The red Debut Carbon turntable with the white Spinbase was a big hit with the local NC State and Carolina Hurricane fans in the office too!
Spinbase Features & Technology
For its very modest price, we would have been impressed if the Spinbase just accommodated a turntable. It actually has two phono connections on the rear, one for normal magnetic moving magnet phono cartridges and another for ceramic cartridges. Ceramic cartridges are what you find on those el cheapo all-in-one “record players” you see sold in some record stores and big superstores like Target. Many of them do have an audio out which would allow you to connect up to the Spinbase and improve the sound, but we highly recommend you stay away from this type of turntable if you care about preserving your records.
The neat part is, the ceramic input can be switched with the flick of a toggle to be a line- in analog input to receive the output of a CD player, DAC or cassette deck. Right beside the two sets of inputs you’ll find a handy bass and treble control and even a mini headphone jack.
The final icing on the cake from an input perspective is the addition of Bluetooth 5.0. Connecting was quick and simple and within seconds we were streaming Tidal to our test unit.
This is one heck of a great combination of inputs and controls that make the Spinbase a great all-in-one music center for your turntable. The great part is, other than its additional 3 ¼” of vertical space, the footprint for your new music system will not be much larger than the space your turntable already takes up!
If you noticed the history of where some of the people on the Andover Audio team came from and you have been following the audio industry for a while, you might start to figure out how this would be a dream team to make a compact system that sounded great. Cambridge Soundworks was known for decades as making the best sounding table radios ever. The sound they got out of their very compact designs amazed most people. a/d/s way back in the 1970s had one of the best sounding little speakers ever made that was super popular for high- end car audio systems. The list goes on.
Well, this skinny little box from Andover Audio delivers on warm, musical, room-filling sound for your turntable! They do it with what is basically a stereo pair of speakers using two woofers and two tweeters. We were so curious as to how it filled up the room with wide sound, we took our sample apart to have a peek behind the grill. There are two forward-firing dome tweeters on each end of the front panel and two oval midbass/bass drivers mounted on the sides firing out.
This configuration gives the Spinbase a 270 degree sound field that creates a really pleasant room-filling sound. Each speaker driver has its own individual power amp. There is actually right much area inside the Spinbase to develop some decent bass, which helps with the warm sound.
We should point out one of us is extremely sensitive to speakers being in perfect phase. When this person was positioned directly in front of the Spinbase, there was a slight feeling of something being out of phase, likely due to the woofers and tweeters not being lined up, but it was very slight and totally disappears when you move even slightly off-center axis.
One other piece of great tech that allows the Spinbase to even be viable is their Isogroove™ technology. It has always been a total no to put a turntable on top of speakers due to acoustic feedback issues. The team at Spinbase is using both mechanical and electronic compensation systems to eliminate any chance of feedback. We have to say, for $300, this is just an outstandingly good sounding product!
Spinbase Performance
We gave the Spinbase a full gamut of testing using a Pro-Ject Debut Carbon as the turntable, a Chord Mojo as an analog input, and Tidal for Bluetooth 5.0 streaming. In each and every case, it provided a warm and rich sound, with never any trace of an edge. The tone controls are also very well thought out. Neither one has a dramatic effect and can be used more for fine-tuning. In other words, turning the bass control even wide open does not overdo the bass like we might have first expected. The treble is especially nice to back down just a shade on an overly bright recording.
The Spinbase turned out also to be a great background music player as it keeps its very warm sound even when you turn the volume down quite low. We also felt it sounded the best if you were right on top of it, but a few feet away. This is likely due to the 270-degree dispersion pattern they use. This does have some pros and cons. The pro is, for the casual listener, the sound it throws out into the room feels big and full. The con is, if you like to sit in the sweet spot and pick out a great stereo image, you would be better off with a powered speaker system.
The real surprise came when we cranked up the vinyl side quite loud. Their Isogroove™ tech really works!
Overall Recommendation
The Spinbase is the perfect option for someone who has very limited space and wants to have good vinyl playback. You can buy a turntable without a phono preamp built-in, which allows you to get a better table for the same money, and use the built-in phono preamp.
Don’t get us wrong, the Spinbase is not as good as a separate pair of $4-500 powered speakers spread apart for better separation, but is a problem solver for space and someone who wants a lot of features. We actually can not think of a $300 pair of powered speakers that have a phono preamp, analog inputs and Bluetooth. You can spend another $50 and get something like the Peachtree M24 or Kanto YU-4, which do have these features and sound better, but they will both take up a lot more space and you need to spread them out some to prevent feedback when using a turntable.
Congrats to Andover Audio for coming up with such a cool product that will allow more people to set up a nice vinyl rig in an area with limited space!
