Refusing to lower his standards nor what he considers the “true” entry-point to vinyl playback, the AVID HiFi turntable range has been well received around the world.

The Ingenium, their entry-level vinyl spinner hits the market in Australia at $2,499 RRP with the choice of either a Rega RB303 or Pro-Ject Carbon tonearm.

But it’s unfair to call this an entry-level turntable – words from our previous Ingenium review:

If we slot all turntables into three bands of sonic goodness and light called budget, mid-priced and aspirational, an audition makes it clear that the Ingenium is poised just far enough to make it into the mid part of the mid-priced turntable category.

Looked at this way, the Ingenium delivers what you’d expect from a $2499 turntable. But please note, not all similarly priced turntables offer the same level of neutrality as the Ingenium.

For such an innovative and respected turntable manufacturer, it didn’t seem quite right going to all that trouble and then leaning on other brands for a tonearm, at least, to me. And with Munich’s High End show for 2017, Conrad saw the perfect opportunity to resolve that line of thinking.

The best things are always worth the wait; you’ll not be disappointed.

In pride of place as attendees entered the AVID room at Munich’s MOC three tonearms were in the spotlight.

The Oxytone, Paroxytone and Barytone; all could be mistaken for a pharmacist’s range of penicillin or some other drug. But no, in ancient Greek these are words used to describe the accent on the last syllable of a word (at least, according to Google).

The Oxytone tonearm uses 3D printing technology to produce a unique single piece titanium arm tube. In combination with an internal bracing structure, an internal energy conducting beam efficiently transfers bad vibrations to the subchassis.

According to Conrad, the Bi-axis bearing configuration importantly places the counterweight over the rotational axis, reducing damaging lateral inertia. There’s also a unique locking system that makes adjustment of VTA quick and simple.

The Paroxytone and Barytone tonearms also use Titanium technology. A 3D printed titanium head-shell is coupled to aerospace grade high tensile thin wall titanium tubing reducing its ability to store unwanted energy, maintaining high rigidity and transmitting vibration to the mounting.

Our new rigid bearing pre load system used in the Oxytone is transferred to our other designs.

Features include easy adjustable VTA on the Paroxytone and the Barytone the classic single locking point.

All three tonearms in the range are designed and built with AVID’s underlying philosophy which relates to controlling the energy flow of a tonearm.

AVID believes that “separating the good and bad vibrations” at the source, and allowing the ‘bad’ vibrations to follow a deliberately created path of least resistance where it can be harmlessly converted into heat, is what makes the difference.

As with anything AVID, the new range will be well-engineered, relies on science and measurements, and just maybe, will even live up to Conrad’s claim:

Possibly the Best Tonearm in the World!

One thing Conrad and his brand that more recently added high-end electronics to the range, isn’t short of, is confidence. He stands by his brand and the products and he backs it up with his knowledge, passion, and enthusiasm.

As I dared challenge the statement above, I was met with that same confidence. "Wait until you hear them”. I certainly look forward to that later this year when the range is officially released.

Finally, hiding in the shadows of the tonearm debut was a new higher-end version of the Ingenium turntable that we dubbed Ingenium ‘Tough’. Not much is known on this one yet and we’ll follow up with more as information is released.

For more information visit the AVID HiFi brand page.