At first glance you might see this turntable and assume somebody forgot to finish assembling it – but the Waiting for Ideas PP-1 isn’t missing anything at all.
Rather than having a tonearm on top like practically every other turntable you can buy, the elliptical diamond stylus is hidden underneath the platter, which means you have to put your records on the ‘wrong’ way up to play the side you want. When it’s not in use, a small set of metal doors cover the cartridge to stop it from picking up dust and other detritus.
No doubt tedious audiophiles will poo-poo it, but we love how it looks, with each one made from a solid block of aluminium. It can automatically detect whether your choice of vinyl needs to be played at 33rpm or 45rpm, so it’ll never sound like the Chipmunks are performing the hits of Black Sabbath, but there’s also a switch that you can use to choose between the two speeds. Next to that you have a multi-function knob that controls the power and volume, giving the whole thing a very minimalist look.
Each one is made to order by a Parisian design studio called Waiting for Ideas, and you’ll have to pay €5800 and wait about 12 weeks for yours to be ready.
If you fork out an extra €3200 they’ll also make you a pair of passive speakers to go with it. They’re black and box-shaped, so they don’t match it exactly, but they do share the same footprint so you can stack all three on top of each other and make a totem pole of sound.
All you need to do then is find an amp that goes with them.
