The Century family celebrates the first 100 years of Philips audio. There are five new products, but really it’s about the turntables, which are all-in-one systems designed to take on brands like Victrola and Crosley – though they aren’t going to debut until September and when I saw them at a launch event today they were only being shown in dummy form rather than as working samples.
The Tina (after Tina Turner, known as the Philips V9000) offers 120W RMS output power in a 2.1 arrangement including a 4in bass reflex subwoofer. Philips says this makes it the world’s most powerful and it’s set to debut around 349 Euros.
It also includes streaming capabilities plus DAB+/FM radio, USB playback and RCA Aux audio-in plus a full-size 6.3mm headphone socket. You can also stream music via Bluetooth 5.3 with Auracast, compatible with both the SBC and LC3 codecs while external Bluetooth speakers can also be paired.
The Stevie (Philips V3000) is a cheaper system at 199 Euros. It’s a three-speed, belt driven turntable with Audio Technica MM cartridge. There’s 12W RMS power output with two full range, bass reflex speakers. vAgain it can be hooked up to other Bluetooth speakers, while you can stream to the device via Bluetooth 5.4.
Elsewhere in the Century range, there’s a Portable Radio with DAB+/FM to celebrate Philips’ development of early radio gear including the Pentode tube in 1925 – it looks retro yet has a display to show station info and song titles. It’s called The Janet, which feels a little less legendary than the other names!
Finally there are two headphones – The Freddie is a retro styled, open backed, over-ear wired headphone while The Ringo is a compact and light weight on-ear headphone.
