I found myself being much more deliberate with my music choices, spending more time with particular artists, and going on a longer emotional journey than I would otherwise. And at the end of the day, that matters a lot more to me than whether the audio fidelity has a slightly different feel to it because of an analog signal.

I wish I could say I unequivocally love the Stream Onyx, but I’m afraid I must equivocate a little bit. My primary annoyance is that the dust cover is rather insubstantial. Most record players with covers have a case that seals the platter in, but the Onyx has a small plastic cap that leaves a lot of space between itself and the player for dust to slip in the sides. It’s better than nothing, but I’d have preferred something more robust. You can always buy something to put over the dust cover, but that's annoying.

It’s also completely irrelevant to anyone without a Sonos-compatible speaker. While Sonos speakers are nice, and we have plenty we like, they’re not the only wireless speaker system on the planet. If you want to use a Bose system, some Bluetooth speakers, or even just cast to your smart speakers, you’re completely out of luck. The best you can do here is get a converter to translate the RCA output to something wireless, but the Stream Onyx doesn’t accommodate this.

At $600, it’s a couple hundred dollars more than comparable record players on the market, minus the Sonos compatibility. It’s definitely worth the premium for Sonos sound systems and for folks who want something that easily works in there Sonos-enabled homes, but if you’re not already in that ecosystem, there are better turntables for less for you.