DG-1S & PHONO-1 win What Hi-Fi? Awards for FIFTH year running

Every year since 2020, What Hi-Fi? has bestowed the great honour of two annual What Hi-Fi? Awards upon Vertere. Our DG-1S Record Player and PHONO-1 MKII L phono stage have both spent four years as the leading technology magazine’s best products in their respective categories - a remarkable record that we’ve upheld with immense pride.

Well it’s with great pleasure that we can announce that this record is set to continue for another year.

Both DG-1S and PHONO-1 MKII L have, once again, won What Hi-Fi? awards - with DG-1S receiving ‘Best Turntable Over £2500’ and PHONO-1 MKII L winning ‘Best Phono Stage Over £1000’. This incredible honour marks half a decade of excellence for these two Vertere products - an achievement made all the more humbling by the deeply competitive landscape of premium HiFi. 

In this piece, we look at both products in turn, and summarise What Hi-Fi’s reaction to their inclusion.

DG-1S wins 2024’s ‘Best Turntable Over £2500’

Ever since it first launched as the DG-1, our most accessible record player has found devoted fans in the team at What Hi-Fi?. That devotion only amplified when we launched the optimised DG-1S, resulting in four back-to-back Best Product awards from 2020 to 2023.

For 2024, DG-1S remains firmly at the top of What HiFi’s list of premium turntables for another year running, bagging the ‘Best Turntable Over £2500’ award four the fifth consecutive time. Detailing how it ‘remains the best premium turntable we've tested for another year’, they happily refer to the DG-1S as ‘our firm recommendation for anyone buying a premium turntable.’

The What Hi-Fi? Team once again praised DG-1S for its ‘bold, dynamic and exciting presentation’, ‘impressive rhythmic drive’, ‘class-leading clarity, and ‘clever engineering’. Their verdict is unequivocal: ‘We haven’t come across a similarly priced alternative that sounds as entertaining and informative as this. Buy with confidence.’

PHONO-1 MKII L wins 2024’s ‘Best Phono Stage Over £1000’

The PHONO-1 represents another Vertere product that, whilst undergoing considerable upgrades throughout its life-cycle, has continued to be passionately championed by the What Hi-Fi? team. Best Product awards have also been forthcoming, with the PHONO-1 achieving four consecutive prizes for ‘Best Phono Stage over £1000’. And now that incredible record continues for a fifth time in 2024. 

With the launch of the MKII L, What Hi-Fi? confidently declared our entry-level phono stage to be a ‘stonking product’, noting how ‘careful evolution has made an already excellent phono stage even better’. Their review praises its sonic qualities, highlighting how the PHONO-1 can ‘dig up layers of fine, textural detail and arrange it in a cohesive and musical manner.’

In the article’s summary, the What Hi-Fi? team remains steadfast in their appreciation for PHONO-1; ‘For new buyers, don’t hesitate…given a source and system of appropriate talent, it shines.’

Our warmest thanks, once again, to the team at What Hi-Fi? for honouring us with this incredible brace of awards.