Unison has a comprehensive Unico line of solid state amplifiers and loudspeakers, but is perhaps best known for its single-ended valve amps. These differ from the herd, not only in their fine sound quality, but also in the unusual application of shaped hardwood pieces to add a uniquely distinctive and attractive style. And incorporating similar motifs within an already very classy looking turntable means the Giro is an exceptionally pretty vinyl spinner.

Maintaining this hardwood styling device was considered essential, because many customers like the separate components of their hi-fi systems to look well coordinated. That also helped determine that the Giro would be a complete record player (ie including tonearm and cartridge), selling for around the £3,000 that customers typically spend on their valve amps.

Cost of the credit crunch

In fact, late in the day (possibly responding to rapid shifts in exchange rates), it was decided to make the Unison UR1 moving magnet cartridge an optional £375 extra, on top of a turntable/arm price of £2,750. (A high output moving magnet cartridge tends to be an easier match to valve phono stages.) However, for the duration of the review programme the UR1 had been deemed an integral part of the package, so most of the review work was carried out using this cartridge.

Appropriate matching might have been a problem, since this reviewer has long favoured low output moving-coil cartridges and is not normally geared up to handle the higher output types. Happily, Unison brought along a couple of prototype MM phono stages which allowed the use of regular pre and power amplification.

One of these, powered by an output supply, is the latest version of the valve-based Simply Phono, incorporating an extra input triode to improve the noise performance. The other unit was solid state – an early prototype of the Unicophono, and powered by rechargeable batteries. Both proved very interesting and effective in practice, but most of the work was done with the valve unit since the solid state unit arrived fully charged, but without any means of recharging.

Familiar feel

It was pretty obvious from the ingredients that the Giro had been sourced from leading German manufacturer ClearAudio. Although Unison has had its own input on both the engineering and the styling of the Giro, checking the ClearAudio catalogue suggests it's related to the latter's Performance model.

It certainly shares the Performance's Satisfy carbon fibre shaft tonearm and the UR1 is a wooden-bodied moving magnet cartridge from the ClearAudio range, though the turntable proper is rather harder to pin down. A glance through ClearAudio's very extensive range shows how many subtle variations on several basic themes are available by using a generous parts bin.

The Giro has an outboard motor drive like a Performance and a similarly thick acrylic platter, but the platter main bearing here replaces the anti-magnetic approach with a tight-fitting inverted steel shaft and ceramic sphere. The main structure is thick acrylic bonded to Unison's trademark shaped and polished hardwood sections, the latter deliberately made from three layers laminated with different grain directions.

Unison has also had significant engineering input on the design of the feet. Regrettably, no dust cover is supplied, though we daresay it will be possible to find something suitable.