Above, you can see the Pro-Ject T1 Evo BT, sitting on a bookcase at the back of my living room. It's a fairly recent addition to my system, but one that I've quickly fallen in love with.
A big part of that is because it is, in fact, my very first turntable. I've been involved in lots of turntable reviews in my 19 years at What Hi-Fi?, but it's taken until this year for me to get a deck home.
Honestly, it's pretty much transformed my music-listening, taken me back to the pre-streaming years when I would buy an album and listen to it on repeat until its tracks had been absorbed at an almost molecular level.
My family has been loving it, too: the artwork, the process of placing a record on the platter and lowering the arm, the rich sound quality – it's all so tactile and rewarding.
As you can imagine, though, my vinyl collection is currently minuscule – just eight records – so I decided to add a fairly inexpensive streamer to my system, too.
The WiiM Pro Plus came highly recommended by my colleagues Kashfia Kabir and Harry McKerrell, and I now know why: its detailed, crisp and rhythmic delivery is great for the everyday streaming I'm doing between vinyl plays.
The good news is that both of these bits of kit, both of which I use at home and wholeheartedly recommend, are currently available with big discounts: the Pro-Ject T1 Evo BT is available for £399 at Richer Sounds, and the WiiM Pro Plus is down to just £175 at Richer Sounds.
The Pro-Ject T1 Evo BT is one of the best entry-level decks we've tested.
We awarded it five stars for its wonderfully balanced performance, praising its ability to sound detailed, insightful and rhythmic while remaining approachable for vinyl newcomers. It also helps that it's beautifully made, with a premium finish that makes it feel much more expensive than it actually is.
Bluetooth support is the icing on the cake, giving you the flexibility to pair it with compatible speakers or headphones if you want to – I've got it wireless connected to a pair of KEF Coda W Bluetooth speakers, as it happens.
The WiiM Pro Plus earned the same five-star verdict for very different reasons.
It's an astonishingly capable music streamer for the money, with support for just about every streaming service you could want while delivering a sound that's clean, expressive and engaging. It extracts an impressive amount of detail from recordings, with plenty of drive and precision to keep music sounding lively and entertaining.
What I particularly like about this pairing is that it means you don't have to choose between analogue and digital. When I want the ritual of putting on a record, the Pro-Ject is ready to go. When I just want instant access to millions of songs while I'm lazing on the sofa or working from home, the WiiM takes over seamlessly.
Of course, there are better turntables and better streamers available if you're prepared to spend significantly more. But if you're looking to build a hi-fi system that covers both vinyl and streaming without spending a fortune, this combination is hard to beat.
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