Review: Audio-Technica AT-SB727 aka Sound Burger!
Re-Birth of the Cool!
Re-Birth of the Cool!
Revision 5/26/24: Most importantly, 1) a WiFi antenna comes to the rescue of the BT performance (even if you have read the article before, you may want to re-read the relevant parts) I added a Bullet "what a difference an antenna makes"; 2) short video clip of the HK session is added. Other minor edits too.
There are 2 parts, from Doctorjohn and Shawn P.
From DJ
Now, this is pure serendipity! As I go to Hong Kong for day trips nearly every week, I have been availing myself of some old magazines on loan from the library. The Yuen Long Library has the HiFi News, which I have caught up with. But, when I make an extra effort, the next stop on the MTR is the more luxuriant Tin Shui Wai Library, which also has AudioXpress, HiFi Choice and Gramophone and BBC Classical. HiFi Choice has always pandered to a less affluent readership than the HiFi News (but not to the level of What HiFi, which if I can get a hold of I'll read too), but sometimes I like browsing through it for cheap thrills. Guess what, I caught sight of the Audio-technica 2022 Re-Issue of the Sound Burger, which had sold out in no time and which I had thoroughly missed. But, guess again, some issues later, hurray, I found out that it has been reissued again - this time permanently. There are many casual reviews of this toy around - perhaps start with this almost anti-analog review, which is actually a commendably thorough one - except for its assessment of sound quality, where I think this review is much better.
AT-SB727 is the name now - a regular model! Not to create conflict with the 2022 limited edition of Ferrari Red, it's now available in Black and White and Porsche Yellow. For Western readers, this is likely available for 200 USD or GBP or whatever. BUT...For Hong Kong and perhaps some Asian Readers, there is a bargain if you buy from Amazon Japan (free shipping, and it got here fast)! I got mine for HKD 1,112 (Black; Yellow available; White seems sold out for now). That's a CRAZY good price. BUT again! ELO sent me a link that shows someone that sells over HK Carousell for not much more (black only), 1190 HKD, and you can have it instantly!!! Shop around. This thing is popular and around to stay.
Ergonomics Fair with quirks. Packaging No frills but reasonably sturdy. I actually accidentally dropped it from waist level and it was unfazed. Battery USB-C 5V charge for 12 hours for initialization - good for 12 hours of use. It is said to use supplied cable as others may not work, but my generic does. When charging, the Power LED is red with slow blink. Yes, be patient, it does take long (LED goes off when fully charged)! Tonearm Transport Lock It needs to be removed to work. Lid Slide the Latch on the side to have it open (spring-like action) Stylus Guard Needs to be removed when playing. Slide it out gently. Power On Indicated by White Color of the LED. To Play 1) Lift the tonearm and pull all the way to the right until it "locks" with a small "click"; 2) Pull the rubber Tonearm Rest/45 Adaptor Out; 3) Place the LP on the Platter and insert back the Tonearm rest/45 Adaptor onto the spindle (nice touch as record clamp and shock absorber!); 4) Pull the tonearm back towards the LP (at which point it starts to spin) and place the stylus over the LP (remember about 0.5 cm in from the edge; never too close to the edge for fear of stylus damage); at the end of the side, lift the tonearm back to the outer rest position to stop the spin. Power Off After removing the LP, re-insert the Tonearm Rest/45 Adaptor; place the tonearm back securely. Hit the Power button to turn off; close the lid.
Round 1 HK I have no idea where I got my Miles album, but It's nice to have! Top pic showcases it. Played through my Melos 222 Preamp and ICL 2A3 amp (with Sylvania Single Plates and Raytheon 717A) and Ruark Crusader II, the sound was thoroughly engaging if a bit subtractive. As I had no adapter, I could only use the supplied generic 3.5mm to RCA cable. At the bottom of this article is a short video clip of the session with Miles.
- 3.5mm/Line Out Unlike in HK, I dispensed with the generic cable and used my trusty el-cheapo DIY Canare 2B2AT. Initially The first one I played was the French Columbia/CBS Pressing (btw, usually good and better than American generics) of Varese's Deserts. It's really a very "hifi" piece, even if on this occasion rendered with a somewhat softer edge than usual, but I enjoyed it immensely! Then, Josef Suk's superb artistry. Finally, two mono disks. The Gieseking (too bad it's a Jap pressing; if it were UK it'd be worth a lot more) was surprisingly flowing and gutsy; even the Kubelik VPO Mahler 1st was very good, full of air and drama! I kid you not - I was happy as a duck during tide in, wallowing in my first vinyl experience in SZ - such are our audiophile attachments and sentiments! It's like for that special occasion you splurged for a nice dinner at a French restaurant (but LOL this sum would not be enough today)! Later Improvements! See below for more observations. One thing of note, background noise is almost nil, very quiet.
- Bluetooth The BT is basic, BT 5.2 SBC. That doesn't bother me, as I'm not necessarily a fan of AptX etc. But Pairing is Trickier. You long press the BT button on the side, and the Power LED starts blinking White. As some of the online reviews have attested, connectivity can be fiddly. The White LED blinks fast until Pairing is achieved, at which point it blinks slowly. Paired with the Douk U4 The first time I hooked it up with the Douk U4 (formal review to come) it took tens of seconds but it worked. Sound was fair but, as expected, not as good as Line Out, but on a subsequent try I got markedly inferior sound, with latency problems, exaggeration of surface noise and even weird "motor-boating" sounds! Pairing with the Aiyima T-09 took forever. At first it just refused to do so. I turned off the BT on every nearby devices but it still didn't work. Then I powered off my Douk U4 (even if selector was not on BT) and it worked! However, even with this better BT device, although the extraneous sounds and latency problems were no longer present the sound was not nearly as good as the Line Out. Part of this is surely due to comparison with the all tube amplification setup - I'm after all a tube man. Please also note that I don't have here any BT loudspeakers or Earphones to assess. BUT, a surprise later. Read on (last Bullet).
- vs Streaming Tidal (on the same Douk U4 via USB of my notebook) I found the Varese and Suk albums on Tidal (different covers). Compared to the Burger Line Out both sounded sharper. Whereas the Suk was perhaps overly warm on the LP, the Tidal was steely and massed strings were hardly acceptable. The percussive Varese presented a different scenario. The uninitiated would probably gravitate towards the digital, with its cleaner edges, quicker starts and stops and even timbral "clarity". BUT, for the experienced listener, on the analog playback the fuller brass and percussion sounds were definitely more accurate. Even more importantly, the sense of continuity was easily superior.
- Warm Up Effect This is a force to be reckoned with! In my euphoric state I actually played the albums several times over. During the same session, the same Varese LP which had previously sounded somewhat soft after some time suddenly significantly gained focus and transient speed, to the point that it almost rivaled the digital Tidal in clarity but way surpassed it in continuity, fluency and confidence. I can only attribute this to warm up effects. It's known the motor of a cartridge needs running in, and even more known that a phonoamp needs more warm up. In fact, most phonoamps need to be continuously powered up to be at their best, and I suspect that is the case here.
- What a Difference an Antenna makes Most of us think of Wifi and BT Antennas as just a (mostly black) rod with a flexi joint and screw on SMA connectors. But there are crazier offerings. Barely into the testing, I got my antenna. I replaced the Douk U4 stock antenna with it and repeated some of the Burger pairing exercises. Still kind of guessing and a somewhat fiddly waiting game but, guess what? Aided by the new Antenna, when U4 was paired with the Burger, all the previous latency and noise problems were gone! In fact, the performance got close to (but not exactly the same as) the Line Out. A Miracle! This could be more of a reflection on the Douk U4's BT reception than the Burger's transmission.
Thoughts
- Overall Assessment This review goes into greater depths than others online, and looks at it from an audiophile angle, on which I have more to say below. But, as the other reviews have mentioned, its Portability and BT Capability combine to make it a contender and a niche product. And I'm one of those in the niche. While it's certainly not at all a top-tier turntable, it's heart is absolutely in the right place, as is to be expected of audio-technica, a company I highly respect, for its generous supply of cheap cartridge bodies and styli to the world (but they do make excellent high-end cartridges too, like ART). The cartridge you have here is used by some entry level TTs with a cosmetic makeover (at a mark-up). Even more famous is the AT-95, which had formed the basis of many a turntable and cartridge manufacturer's tweaked base models (again, with big mark-up; like Clearaudio), I always recommend AT TTs at any level, and still in NYC use an over-achieving AT-PL120, a screaming bargain. Hidden Agenda Yes, I do have one. If I get the opportunity I intend to take the Burger to some "super-analog" setups and make the owner rethink things...at least to return to basics...In our experience, many "super-digital" setups get as messed up as "super-analog" ones - are you one of them? This toy is like the TT equivalent of a Naim Nait 1 or Cyrus 1 or NAD 3020, able to tell whether you have gone way overboard (many do). Litmus Test, kind of!
- Lid You don't have to close the lid when you play back an LP, as you can see from the top pic. Enclosure (even partial) generates turbulence, which is not good. From my experience ALL TTs and top-loading CDPs sound better (no exception) with the lid open (in the case of the latter you have to insert a toothpick or something to defeat the mechanism).
- Stylus Guard I'd not replace it at the end of session. IMHO, pulling it off and re-fitting it again and again increases the chance of damage to the stylus. The protection of the Arm Rest and Lid are enough, and AT styli are famously sturdy.
- Stylus Upgrade? The stylus can be pulled off and changed. Well, there is an LP Gear version that for a small premium substitutes an Elliptical Stylus for the stock Conical. The elliptical would have a little more detail over the conical, but the latter can be more "wholesome". For myself? I'd not change.
- Cartridge Upgrade? As you can probably see from one of the pics below, the cartridge is just glued to the shell, which is secured with screws to the arm. Unless you are savvy, I'd not advice tinkering, as the cartridge is soldered to the tonearm wires (I found that in one of the forums but I'm not able as yet to find it again). One can remove the cartridge with a razor blade and de-solder the tonearm leads, but attaching a new one will take considerably more finesse (it'd have to be a narrow-bodied one like the AT [not many of those], and one'd have to realign and adjust tracking and anti-skating weights, and there's no obvious path in this TT). I'm not confident enough to unravel the tonearm's secrets (totally covered up), so maybe some readers can advice me. That's a tall order! Perhaps one day I shall develop the courage to take apart the tonearm casing...
- Built-In Phonoamp/Line Out Long before Pro-Ject etc, AT was among the first to supply decent built-in Phonoamps with its TTs, an example of which is the evergreen AT-LP120 I cited just above (top Bullet; now in its late USB iterations). AT also once marketed a decent super-budget standalone AT-PEQ3 (reviewed here), which I think I got near close-out at USD 35. So I know their MM phonoamps are decent. And it proved in the SB727 too. This review is mainly based on the very good Line Out performance.
- Potential Phono Out Mod See the pics below. IMHO, it'd potentially be a game changer. Should AT revises this TT, I'd love a Line/Phono Out Switch.
- Power Supply Alternatives? The Battery is actually 3.6V, specified to have max of 4.2 V. The USB-C DC Supply is 5V, so may have a bit of regulation built in. As you can see in the pic below, one can disengage the battery. I just wonder if then the 5V DC Supply will still work on its own. If so, one can replace it with a 5V DC Supply of one's choice, be it SMPS or LPS. Of course, some may think of the battery as the best DC source (as well as lowest noise), but YMMV (I'm usually not a fan of battery, as it is usually rhythmically inferior). If you know that I can remove the battery without damaging the electronics, let me know!!!
- Warm Up Effect What I said above is also because I think this TT will sound its best if it's continuously ON. If the battery can be removed with no detrimental effect that's what I'll do with a 5V DC supply.
- Who is This For? As I use mainly its Line Out, I'm not in a best position to judge its BT prowess. But, I'm sure this is the perfect thing for someone who has a few vinyl albums that he wants to play from time to time! AND, one cannot imagine a better space saver for vinyl replay! Collapsible and out of the way for most of the time! For heavier use, I'm sure most would gravitate to AT's other (larger) offerings. One thing is for certain, the AT sound is not bad at all. Highly recommended!
- Conclusion Even as one with over 10 TT's, I'm wildly fond of this TT, and will buy more later. Just Lovely!
From Shawn P
He then showed me the Amazon webpage of “Sound Burger” and I immediately recognized that was something I had seen in the 80s only that it was too expensive for me.
It was called a different name and the current name “Sound Burger” certainly gave me an impression that it was a toy which was exactly what doctorjohn told me he was going to get.
No, I was not interested in getting one because, again, it was a toy and I was not sure how a record could be played well when it is kind of dangling in the air.
Nevertheless, I did some research and found that Sound Burger is not a toy but a good turntable. Reviews were good and I thought I can deploy this guy easily without much setup and space, perhaps I should consider.
Back tracking in time a bit (in fact, plenty), the last time I played a vinyl record was more than 5 years ago and at the time I did not have a dedicated room for the system, I was using a headphone amp with the turntable.
Using a headphone amp with a turntable is not something ideal as I was able to hear all the pops, tracking issues, incorrect anti-skate setting etc. very clearly. But I did enjoy the sound of vinyl. Back to the present, my turntable has been in storage for 5 years and I just could not get myself into setting it up again. I thought, it has been untouched for 5 years and it may need lubrication and other adjustments before I could get it to work properly.
The idea of having Sound Burger ready to go in minutes became increasingly attractive in particular the price was right and the wrong could not be too wrong, that is only if it turned out to be a bad buy.
So I pulled the trigger on the same day doctorjohn did and I am sure his and mine Sound Burgers took the same fight getting to Hong Kong.
I bought the yellow one simply because that looks more 80s to me. It took several hours to charge it up and I was ready to listen to my vinyl with speakers for the first time in 35 years! The first one I played was, of course, an album from my favourite band Anzen Chitai (安全地帯), their third album “Anzen Chitai III : Dakishimetai (抱きしめたい)”. Well, it sounded good but not as good as I expected. Needless to say, my Pro-Ject Carbon is a better turntable and I used it with a Schiit phono amp. My expectation was perhaps to high for the Sound Burger. But I liked how it sounded, it is different from digital files for sure. I enjoyed it out of the box.
I then took out the Chariots of Fire and that album sounded pretty good. In fact it sounded a lot better than its CD counterpart. Just about every aspect improved with the vinyl version. I thought vinyl would produce a looser phantom image but this particular vinyl produced a very solid phantom image. That cannot be said with the Anzen Chitai III.
With the Chariot of Fire, I was quite happy with the Sound Burger and it seemed the Sound Burger was getting better after several hours in operation. As mentioned by doctorjohn subsequently, it requires some warm up.
The first day of listening ended with an album from Masahiko Kondo (近藤真彥), Summer in Tears. I had never bought any of his albums in the 80’s which shows how much I liked him. That said, the reason why I bought this particular album was because it has several songs adapted by Hong Kong singers/bands, including one by Anita Mui and one by Grasshoppers.
I never liked the way he sings but, to my surprise, this album was very good, in fact the best out of the three I listened to that night. Very good soundstage, good bass, clear. It was great, finishing my first day of listening with such a good album.
I noticed the output of the Sound Burger was on the low side and I decided to introduce our beloved Nobsound E6 preamp to the chain the next day. Wow! The Sound Burger sounded fantastic with the E6. The main issue I noticed (without E6) was that the higher frequencies sounded a bit grainy/sandy, in particular with higher signal level. With the E6, the graininess was gone, everything became “meatier” with improvement on clarity. Instruments and vocals became more well defined. It was a great success with the E6.
I do not consider the Sound Burger a toy now and will likely continue listening to my vinyls with it."
The Motor that drives the Belt
The Headshell can be loosened, but the Cartrdige is glued on
The Tonearm Out. Looks like one can easily attach another cable
to it to facilitate a Phono Out Upgrade
An aluminum Platter, not bad! Lower left shows the Battery Lead sticking out from below.
Battery. 3.6V
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